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THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 A STORY OF THE COAST OF MAINE 
 
 HARRIET BEECHER STOWE 
 
 III 
 
 THIRTIETH EDITION 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLTN AND COMPANY 
 
 1889 
 
Copyright, 1862, 
 Br HARRIET BEECH ER STOWE. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
te 
 
 THE PEARL OF OER'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON the road to the Kennebec, below the town of Bath, 
 in the State of Maine, might have been seen, on a cer- 
 tain autumnal afternoon, a one-horse wagon, in which two 
 persons were sitting. One is an old man, with the pecu- 
 liarly hard but expressive physiognomy which character 
 izes the seafaring population of the New England shores 
 
 A clear blue eye, evidently practised in habits of keen 
 observation, white hair, bronzed, weather-beaten cheeks, 
 and a face deeply lined with the furrows of shrewd 
 thought and anxious care, were points of the portrait 
 that made themselves felt at a glance. 
 
 By his side sat a young woman of two-and-twenty, of 
 a marked and peculiar personal appearance. Her hair 
 was black, and smoothly parted on a broad forehead, to 
 which a pair of pencilled dark eyebrows gave a striking 
 tuid definite outline. Beneath, lay a pair of large black 
 eyes, remarkable for tremulous expression of melancholy 
 and timidity. The cheek was white and bloodless as a 
 enowberry, though with the clear and perfect oval of 
 good health ; the mouth was delicately formed, with a 
 certain sad quiet in its lines, which indicated a habitu- 
 ally repressed and sensitive nature. 
 
 The dress of this young person, as often happens in 
 1 
 
2 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 New England, was, in refinement and even elegancej a 
 marked contrast to that of ^r male companion and to 
 the humble vehicle in which she rode. There was not 
 only the most fastidious neatness, but a delicacy in the 
 choice of colors, an indication of elegant tastes in the 
 whole arrangement, and the quietest suggestion in the 
 world of an acquaintance with the usages of fashion, 
 which struck one oddly in those wild and dreary sur- 
 roundings. On the whole, she impressed one like those 
 fragile wild-flowers which in April cast their fluttering 
 shadows from the mossy crevices of the old New Eng- 
 land granite, an existence in which colorless delicacy 
 is united to a sort of elastic hardihood of life, fit for the 
 rocky soil and harsh winds it is born to encounter. 
 
 The scenery of the road along which the two were 
 riding was wild and bare. Only savins and mulleins, 
 with their dark pyramids or white spires of velvet leaves, 
 diversified the sandy way-side ; but out at sea was a wide 
 sweep of blue, reaching far to the open ocean, which lay 
 rolling, tossing, and breaking into white caps of foam in 
 the bright sunshine. For two or three days a north-east 
 storm had been raging, and the sea was in all the com- 
 motion which such a general upturning creates. 
 
 The two travellers reached a point of elevated land, 
 where they paused a moment, and the man drew up the 
 jogging, stiff-jointed old farm-horse, and raised himself 
 upon his feet to look out at the prospect. 
 
 There might be seen in the distance the blue Kenue- 
 bee sweeping out toward the ocean through its pictur- 
 esque rocky shores, decked with cedars and other dusky 
 evergreens, which were illuminated by the orange and 
 6ame-colored trees of Indian summer. Here and there 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 3 
 
 icarlet eroepers swung long trailing garlands over the 
 faces of the dark rock, and fringes of golden rod above 
 swayed with the brisk blowing wind that was driving the 
 blue waters seaward, in face of the upcoming ocean tide, 
 a conflict which caused them to rise in great foam-crested 
 waves. There were two channels into this river from 
 Ihe open sea, navigable for ships which are coming in 
 lo the city of Bath ; one is broad and shallow, the other 
 narrow and deep, and these are divided by a steep ledge 
 of rocks. 
 
 Where the spectators of this scene were sitting, they 
 could see in the distance a ship borne with tremendous 
 force by the rising tide into the mouth of the river, and 
 encountering a north-west wind which had succeeded the 
 gale, as northwest winds often do on this coast. The 
 ship, from what might be observed in the distance, seemed 
 struggling to make the wider channel, but was constantly 
 driven off by the baflling force of the wind. 
 
 " There she is, Naomi," said the old fisherman, eagerly, 
 to his companion, "coming right in." The young woman 
 was one of the sort that never start, and never exclaim, 
 but with all deeper emotions grow still. The color slow- 
 ly mounted into her cheek, her lips parted, and her eyes 
 dilated with a wide, bright expression ; her breathing 
 came in thick gasps, but she said nothing. 
 
 The old fisherman stood up in the wagon, his coarse, 
 butternut-colored coat-flaps fluttering and snapping in the 
 breeze, while his interest seemed to be so intense in the 
 efforts of the ship that he made involuntary and eager 
 movements as if to direct her course. A moment passed, 
 and his keen, practised eye discovered a change io he> 
 movements, for he cried out involuntarily, 
 
4 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 ** Don't take the narrow channel to-day ! " and a mo- 
 ment after, " Lord ! O Lord ! have mercy, there 
 they go! Look! look! look!" 
 
 And, in fact, the ship rose on a great wave clear oui 
 of the water, and the next second seemed to leap with a 
 desperate plunge into the narrow passage ; for a moment 
 there was a shivering of the masts and the rigging, and 
 she went down and was gone. 
 
 " They 're split to pieces ! " cried the fisherman. " Oh, 
 my poor girl my poor girl they 're gone ! O Lord, 
 have mercy ! " 
 
 The woman lifted up no voice, but, as one who has 
 been shot through the heart falls wiih no cry, she fell 
 back, a mist rose up over her great mournful eyes, 
 she had fainted. 
 
 The story of this wreck of a home-bound ship just 
 entering the harbor is yet told in many a family on this 
 coast. A few hours after, the unfortunate crew were 
 washed ashore in all the joyous holiday rig in which 
 they had attired themselves that morning to go to theii 
 sisters, wives, and mothers. 
 
 This is the first scene in our story. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DOWN near the end of Orr's Island, facing the open ocean, 
 stands a brown house of the kind that the natives call " lean- 
 to," or " linter," one of those large, comfortable structures, 
 barren in the ideal, but rich in the practical, which the 
 working-man of New England can always command. 
 
 The waters of the ocean came up within a rod of this 
 house, and the sound of its moaning waves was even now 
 filling the clear autumn starlight. Evidently something was 
 going on within, for candles fluttered and winked from win- 
 dow to window, like fireflies in a dark meadow, and sounds 
 as of quick footsteps, and the flutter of brushing garments, 
 might be heard. 
 
 Something unusual is certainly going on within the dwell- 
 ing of Zephaniah Fennel to-night. 
 
 Let us enter the dark front-door. "We feel our way to 
 the right, where a solitary ray of light comes from the chink 
 of a half-opened door. 
 
 Here is the front room of the house, set apart as its place 
 of especial social hilarity and sanctity, the " best room," 
 with its low studded walls, white dimity window-curtains 
 rag carpet, and polished wood chairs. 
 
 It is now lit by the dim gleam of a solitary tallow candle^ 
 which seems in the gloom to make only a feeble circle of 
 light around itself, leaving all the rest of the apartment in 
 jhadow. 
 
 In the centre of the room, stretched upon a table, and 
 
6 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 covered partially by a sea-cloak, lies the body of a man ol 
 twenty-five, lies, too, evidently as one of whom it ia 
 written, " He shall return to his house no more, neither 
 shall his place, know him any more." A splendid man- 
 hood has suddenly been called to forsake that lifeless form, 
 leaving it, like a deserted palace, beautiful in its desola- 
 tion. 
 
 The hair, dripping with the salt wave, curled in glossy 
 abundance on the finely-formed head ; the flat, broad brow ; 
 the closed eye, with its long black lashes ; the firm, manly 
 mouth ; the strongly-moulded chin, all, all were sealed 
 with that seal which is never to be broken till the great 
 resurrection day. 
 
 He was lying in a full suit of broadcloth, with a white 
 vest and smart blue neck-tie, fastened with a pin, in which 
 was some braided hair under a crystal. All his clothing, as 
 well as his hair, was saturated with sea-water, which trickled 
 from time to time, and struck with a leaden and dropping 
 sound into a sullen pool which lay under the table. 
 
 . This was the body of James Lincoln, ship-master of the 
 brig Flying Scud, who that morning had dressed himself 
 gayly in his state-room to go on shore and meet his wife, 
 singing and jesting as he did so. 
 
 This is all that you have to learn in the room below ; but 
 as we stand there, we hear a trampling of feet in the apart- 
 ment above, the quick yet careful opening and shutting 
 of doors, and voices come and go about the house, and 
 whisper consultations on the stairs. Now comes the roll of 
 wheels, and the Doctor's gig drives up to the door ; and, ag 
 ho goes creaking up with his heavy boots, we will follow ana 
 gain admission to the dimly -lighted chamber. 
 
 Two gossips are sitting in earnest, whispering conversa 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 7 
 
 don over a small >andle done up in an old flannel petticoat. 
 To them the doctor is about to address himself cheerily, but 
 is repelled by sundry signs and sounds which warn him not 
 to speak. 
 
 Moderating his heavy boots as well as he is able to a pace 
 of quiet, he advances for a moment, and the petticoat is un- 
 folded for him to glance at its contents ; while a low, eager, 
 whispered conversation, attended with much head-shaking, 
 warns him that his first duty is with somebody behind tho 
 checked curtains of a bed in the farther corner of the room. 
 He steps on tiptoe, and draws the curtain ; and there, with 
 closed eye, and cheek as white as wintry snow, lies the same 
 face over which passed the shadow of death when that ill- 
 fated ship went down. 
 
 This woman was wife to him. who lies below, and within 
 the hour has been made mother to a frail little human exist- 
 ence, which the storm of a great anguish has driven untime- 
 ly on the shores of life, a precious pearl cast up from the 
 past eternity upon the wet, wave-ribbed sand of the present. 
 Now, weary with her meanings, and beaten out with the 
 wrench of a double anguish, she lies with closed eyes in that 
 passive apathy which precedes deeper shadows and longer 
 rest. 
 
 Over against her, on the other side of the bed, sits an aged 
 woman in an attitude of deep dejection, and the old man we 
 law with her in the morning is standing with an anxious, 
 iwe-struck face at the foot of the bed. 
 
 The doctor feels the pulse of the woman, or rather lays 
 an inquiring finger where the slightest thread of vital cur- 
 rent is scarcely throbbing, and shakes his head mourn- 
 fully. 
 
 The touch of his hand rouses her, her large wild, mel 
 
8 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 ancholy eyes fix themselves on him with an inquiring glance, 
 then she shivers and moans, 
 
 " Oh, Doctor, Doctor ! Jamie, Jamie ! " 
 
 " Come, come ! " said the doctor, " cheer up, my girl 
 you 've got a fine little daughter, the Lord mingles mer- 
 cies with his afflictions." 
 
 Her eyes closed, her head moved with a mournful but 
 decided dissent. 
 
 A moment after she spoke in the sad old words of the 
 Hebrew Scripture, 
 
 " Call her not Naomi ; call her Mara, for the Almighty 
 hath dealt very bitterly with me." 
 
 And as she spoke, there passed over her face the sharp 
 frost of the last winter ; but even as it passed there broke 
 out a smile, as if a flower had been thrown down from Para- 
 dise, and she said, 
 
 " Not my will, but thy will," and so was gone. 
 
 Aunt Roxy and Aunt Ruey were soon left alone in the 
 chamber of death. 
 
 " She '11 make a beautiful corpse," said Aunt Roxy, sur- 
 veying the still, white form contemplatively, with her head 
 in an artistic attitude. 
 
 " She was a pretty girl," said Aunt Ruey ; " dear me, 
 what a Providence ! I 'member the wedd'n down in that 
 lower room, and what a handsome couple they were." 
 
 " They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in 
 their deaths they were not divided," said Aunt Roxy, sen- 
 tentiously. 
 
 " What was it she said, did ye hear ? " said Aunt Ruey. 
 
 " She called the baby < Mary.' " 
 
 " Ah ! sure enough, her mother's name afore her. Wha/ 
 A still, softly-spoken thing she always was ! " 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 9 
 
 * A pity the poor baby did n't go with her," said Aunt 
 Roxy ; " seven-months' children are so hard to raise." 
 
 " 'T is a pity," said the other. 
 
 But babies will lire, and all the more when everybody 
 says that it is a pity they should. Life goes on as inex- 
 orably in this world as death. 
 
 It was ordered by THE WILL above that out of these two 
 graves should spring one frail, trembling autumn flower, 
 the " Mara " whose poor little roots first struck deep in the 
 salt, bitter waters of our mortal life. 
 
 1* 
 
10 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER III, 
 
 Now, 1 cannot think of anything more unlikeh ami .min- 
 teresting to make a story of than that old brown " linter " 
 house of Captain Zephaniah Pennel, down on the south 
 end of Orr's Island. 
 
 Zephaniah and Mary Pennel, like Zacharias and Eliza- 
 beth, are a pair of worthy, God-fearing people, walking in 
 all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless ; 
 but that is no great recommendation to a world gaping for 
 sensation and calling for something stimulating. This wor- 
 thy couple never read anything but the Bible, the Missionary 
 Herald, and the Christian Mirror, never went anywhere 
 ixcept in the round of daily business. He owned a fishing- 
 smack, in which he labored after the apostolic fashion ; and 
 she washed, and ironed, and scrubbed, and brewed, and baked, 
 in her contented round, week in and out. The only recrea- 
 tion they ever enjoyed was the going once a week, in good 
 weather, to a prayer-meeting in a little old brown school- 
 house, about a mile from their dwelling; and making a 
 weekly excursion every Sunday, in their fishing craft, to 
 Ae church opposite, on Harpswell Neck. 
 
 To be sure, Zephaniah had read many wide leaver 
 of God's great book of Nature, for, like most Maine 
 sea-captains, he had been wherever ship can go, to all 
 UBiial and unusual ports. His hard, shrewd, weather-beaten 
 visage had been seen looking over the railings of his brig 
 in x he port of Genoa, swept round by its splendid crescent of 
 
THE ^EARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 11 
 
 palaces and its snow-crested Apennines. It had looked out 
 in the Lagoons of Venice at that wavy floor which in evening 
 eeems a sea of glass mingled with fire, and out of which rise 
 temples, and palaces, and churches, and distant silvery Alps, 
 like so many fabrics of dream-land. He had been through 
 the Skagerrack and Cattegat, into the Baltic, and away 
 round to Archangel, and there chewed a bit of chip, and 
 considered and calculated what bargains it was best to make, 
 He had walked the streets of Calcutta in his shirt-sleeves, 
 with his best Sunday vest, backed with black glazed cambric, 
 which six months before came from the hands of Miss Roxy, 
 and was pronounced by her to be as good as any tailor 
 could make ; and in all these places he was just Zephaniah 
 Fennel, a chip of old Maine, thrifty, careful, shrewd, 
 honest, God-fearing, and carrying an instinctive knowledge 
 of men and things under a face of rustic simplicity. 
 
 It was once, returning from one of his voyages, that he 
 found his wife with a black-eyed, curly-headed little creature, 
 who called him papa, and climbed on his knee, nestled under 
 his coat, rifled his pockets, and woke him every morning by 
 pulling open his eyes with little fingers, and jabbering unin- 
 telligible dialects in his ears. 
 
 " We will call this child Naomi, wife," he said, after con- 
 sulting his old Bible ; ** for that means pleasant, and I 'm 
 sure I never see anything beat her for pleasantness. I 
 never knew as children was so engagin' ! " 
 
 It was to be remarked that Zephaniah after this made 
 shorter and shorter vDyages, being somehow conscious of a 
 string around his heart which pulled him harder and harder, 
 till one Sunday, when the little Naomi was five years old, 
 he said to his wife, 
 
 " I hope I a'n't a-pervertin' Scrip tur' nor nuthin', but I 
 
12 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 can't help thinkin' of one passage, ' The kingdom of hearou 
 is like a merchantman seeking goodly pearls, and when he 
 hath found one pearl of great price, for joy thereof he goeih 
 and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that pearl' Well, 
 Mary, 1 've been and sold my brig last week," he said, fold- 
 ing his daughter's little quiet head under his coat, "'cause 
 it seems to me the Lord 's given us this pearl of great price, 
 and it s enough for us. I don't want to be rambling round 
 the world after riches. We'll have a little farm down on 
 Orr's Island, and I '11 have a little fishing-smack, and we'll 
 live and be happy together." 
 
 And so Mary, who in those days was a pretty you' g 
 married woman, felt herself rich and happy, no duel ss 
 richer or happier. The two contentedly delved and to- xl, 
 and the little Naomi was their princess. The wise mei of 
 the East at the feet of an infant, offering gifts, gold, frank- 
 incense, and myrrh, is just a parable of what goes or in 
 every house where there is a young child. All the hard 
 Ind the harsh, and the common and the disagreea/.'-le, is 
 for the parents, all the bright and beautiful fo their 
 child. 
 
 When the fishing-smack went to Portland to seL 7 mack- 
 erel, there came home in Zephaniah's 'fishy coaC pocket 
 strings of coral beads, tiny gaiter boots, brilliant silks 
 and ribbons for the little fairy princess, his Pearl of 
 the Island; and sometimes, when a stray party from the 
 neighboring town of Brunswick came down to explore 
 the romantic scenery of the solitary island, they would be 
 startled by the apparition of this still, graceful, dark-eyed 
 child, exquisitely dressed in the best and brightest that the 
 shops of a neighboring city could afford, sitting like some 
 topical bird on a lonely rock, where the sea camo dashing 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 13 
 
 up into the edges of arbor vitae, or tripping along the wet 
 sands for shells and sea-weed. 
 
 Many children would have been spoiled by such unlimited 
 indulgence ; but there are natures sent down into this harsh 
 world so timorous, and sensitive, and helpless in themselves, 
 that the utmost stretch of indulgence and kindness is needed 
 for their development, like plants which the warmest shelf 
 of the green-house and the most careful watch of the gardener 
 alone can bring into flower. 
 
 The pale child, with her large, lustrous, dark eyes, and 
 sensitive organization, was nursed and brooded into a beauti- 
 ful womanhood, and then found a protector in a high-spirited, 
 manly young ship-master, and she became his wife. 
 
 And now we see in the best room the walls lined with 
 serious faces men, women, and children, that have come 
 to pay the last tribute of sympathy to the living and the 
 dead. 
 
 The house looked so utterly alone and solitary in that 
 wild, sea-girt island, that one would have as soon expected 
 the sea-waves to rise and walk in, as so many neighbors ; but 
 they had come from neighboring points, crossing the glassy 
 sea in their little crafts, whose white sails looked like millers' 
 wings, or walking miles from distant parts of the island. 
 
 Some writer calls a funeral one of the amusements of a 
 New England population. Must we call it an amusement 
 to go and see the acted despair of Medea ? or the dying 
 Agonies of poor Adrienne Lecouvreur? It is something of 
 the same awful interest in life's tragedy, which makes an 
 untaught and primitive people gather to a funeral, a 
 tragedy where there is no acting, and one which each 
 ene feels must come at some time to his own dwelling. 
 
 Be that as it may, here was a room/ul. Not only Aunt 
 
1 4 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Roxy anc 1 Aunt Rucy, who by a prescriptive right presided 
 over all the births, deaths, and marriages of the neighbor- 
 hood, but there was Captain Kittridge, a long, dry, weather- 
 beaten old sea-captain, who sat as if tied in a double bow- 
 knot, with his little fussy old wife, with a great Leghorn 
 bonnet, and eyes like black glass beads shining through 
 the bows of her horn spectacles, and her hymn-book in her 
 hand ready to lead the psalm. There were aunts, uncles, 
 cousins, and brethren of the deceased ; and in the midst 
 stood two coffins, where the two united in death lay sleep- 
 ing tenderly, as those to whom rest is good. All was still as 
 death, except a chance whisper from some busy neighbor, or 
 a creak of an old lady's great black fan, or the fizz of a fly 
 down the window-pane, and then a stifled sound of deep- 
 drawn breath and weeping from under a cloud of heavy 
 black crape veils, that were together in the group which 
 country-people call the mourners. 
 
 A gleam of autumn sunlight streamed through the white 
 curtains, and fell on a silver baptismal vase that stood on 
 the mother's coffin, as the minister rose and said, " The 
 ordinance of baptism will now be administered." A few 
 moments more, and on a baby brow had fallen a few drops 
 of water, and the little pilgrim ot a new life had been called 
 Mara in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 the minister slowly repeating thereafter those beautiful words 
 of Holy Writ, " A father of the fatherless is God in his holy 
 habitation," as if the baptism of that bereaved one had 
 been a solemn adoption into the infinite heart of the 
 Lord. 
 
 With something of the quaint pathos which distinguishes 
 the primitive and Biblical people of that lonely shore, the 
 minister read the passage in Ruth from which the name of 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 15 
 
 the little stranger was drawn, and which describes the return 
 of the bereaved Naomi to her native land. His voice trem- 
 bled, and there were tears in many eyes as he read, " And 
 it came to pass as she caa^e to Bethlehem, all the city was 
 moved about them ; and they said, Is this Naomi ? And 
 she said unto them, Call me not Naomi ; call me Mara ; for 
 the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out 
 full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty : why 
 then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against 
 me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me ? " 
 
 Deep, heavy sobs from the mourners were for a few mo- 
 ments the only answer to these sad words, till the minister 
 raised the old funeral psalm of New England. 
 
 44 Why do we mourn departing friends, 
 
 Or shake at Death's alarms? 
 'Tis but the voice that Jesus sends 
 
 To call them to his arms. 
 Are we not tending upward too, 
 
 As fast as time can move? 
 And should we wish the hours more slow 
 
 That bear us to our love?" 
 
 The words rose in old "China," that strange, wild 
 warble, whose quaintly blended harmonies might have been 
 learned of moaning seas or wailing winds, so strange and 
 grand they rose, full of that intense pathos which rises over 
 every defect of execution ; and as they sung, Zephaniah 
 Pennel straightened his tall form, before bowed on his hands, 
 and looked heavenward, his cheeks wet with tears, but some- 
 thing sublime and immortal shining upward through his blue 
 eyes ; and at the last verse he came forward involuntarily, 
 ai.d stood by his dead, and his voice rose over all the others 
 is he sung, 
 
16 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 u Then let the last loud trumpet sound, 
 
 And bid the dead arise! 
 Awake, ye nations under ground! 
 Ye saints, ascend the skies ! " 
 
 The sunbeam through the window-curtain fell on his silver 
 hair, and they that looked beheld his face as it were the face 
 of an angel ; he had gotten a sight of the city whose foun4a- 
 tJoc IE jasper, and whose every gate is a separate pearl 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 17 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE sea lay like an unbroken mirror all around the pine* 
 girt, lonely shores of Orr's Island. Tall, kingly spruceo 
 wore their regal crowns of cones high in air, sparkling 
 with diamonds of clear exuded gum ; vast old hemlocks of 
 primeval growth stood darkling in their forest shadows, 
 their branches hung with long hoary moss ; while feathery 
 larches, turned to brilliant gold by autumn frosts, lighted up 
 the darker shadows of the evergreens. It was one of those 
 hazy, calm, dissolving days of Indian summer, when every- 
 thing is so quiet that the faintest kiss of the wave on the 
 beach can be heard, and white clouds seem to faint into the 
 blue of the sky, and soft swathing bands of violet vapor 
 make all earth look dreamy, and give to the sharp, clear- 
 cut outlines of the northern landscape all those mysteries 
 of light and shade which impart such tenderness to Italian 
 scenery. 
 
 The funeral was over, the tread of many feet, bearing 
 the heavy burden of two broken lives, had been to the lonely 
 graveyard, and had come back again, each footstep lighter 
 and more unconstrained as each one went his way from the 
 great old tragedy of Death to the common cheerful walks of 
 Life. 
 
 The solemn black clock stood swaying with its eternal 
 tick-tock, tick-tock," in the kitchen of the brown house on 
 Orr's Island. There was there that sense of a stillness that 
 
Ib THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 can be felt, such as settles clown on a dwelling when any 
 of its inmates have passed through its doors for the last 
 time, to go whence they shall not return. The best room 
 was shut up and darkened, with only so much light as could 
 fall through a little heart-shaped hole in the window-shutter, 
 for except on solemn visits, or prayer-meetings, or wed- 
 dings, or funerals, that room formed no part of the dailj 
 family scenery. 
 
 The kitchen was clean and ample, with a great open fire- 
 place and wide stone hearth, and oven on one side, and rows 
 of old-fashioned splint-bottomed chairs against the wall. A 
 table scoured to snowy whiteness, and a little work-stand 
 whereon lay the Bible, the Missionary Herald, and the 
 Weekly Christian Mirror, before named, formed the prin- 
 cipal furniture. One feature, however, must not be for 
 gotten, a great sea-chest, which had been the companion 
 of Zephaniah through all the countries of the earth. Old, 
 und battered, and unsightly it" looked, yet report said that 
 there was good store within of that which men for the most 
 part respect more than anything else ; and, indeed, it proved 
 often when a deed of grace was to be done, when a woman 
 was suddenly made a widow in a coast gale, or a fishing- 
 smack was run down in the fogs off the banks, leaving in 
 some neighboring cottage a family of orphans, in all such 
 cases, the opening of this sea-chest was an event of good 
 omen to the bereaved ; for Zephaniah had a large heart and 
 a large hand, and was apt to take it out full of silver dollars 
 when once it went in. So the ark of the covenant could not 
 have been looked on with more reverence than the neighbors 
 usually sJiowed to Captain Fennel's sea-chest. 
 
 The afternoon sun is shining in a square of light through 
 the open kitchen-doo", whence one dreamily disposed mighf 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. IS 
 
 look far out to sea, and behold ships coming and going ID 
 every variety of shape and size. 
 
 But Aunt Roxy and Aunt Ruey, who for the present 
 were sole occupants of the premises, were not people of the 
 dreamy kind, and consequently were not gazing off to sea, 
 but attending to very terrestrial matters that in all cases 
 somebody must attend to. The afternoon was warm anl 
 balmy, but a few smouldering sticks were kept in the grout 
 chimney, and thrust deep into the embers was a mongrel 
 species of snub-nosed tea-pot, which fumed strongly of cat- 
 nip-tea, a little of which gracious beverage Miss Roxy 
 was preparing in an old-fashioned cracked India china 
 tea-cup, tasting it as she did so with the air of a connois- 
 seur. 
 
 Apparently this was for the benefit of a small something 
 in long white clothes, that lay face downward under a little 
 blanket of very blue new flannel, and which something Aunt 
 Roxy, when not otherwise engaged, constantly patted with a 
 gentle tattoo, in tune to the steady trot of her knee. 
 
 All babies knew Miss Roxy's tattoo on their backs, and 
 never thought of taking it in ill part. On the contrary, it 
 had a vital and mesmeric effect of sovereign force against 
 colic, and all other disturbers of the nursery ; and never 
 was infant known so pressed with those internal troubles 
 which infants cry about, as not speedily to give over and 
 sink to slumber at this soothing appliance. 
 
 At a little distance sat Aunt Ruey, with a quantity of 
 black crape strewed on two chairs about her, very busily 
 employed in getting up a mourning-bonnet, at which she 
 snipped, and clipped, aud worked, zealously singing, in a 
 high cracked voice, from time to time, certain verses of a 
 funeral psalm. 
 
20 THE PEARL OF ORR S ISLAND. 
 
 Miss Kt*y and Miss Ruey Toothacre were two brisk old 
 bodies of the feminine gender and singular number, well 
 known in all the region of Harpswell Neck and Middle 
 Bay, and such was thsir fame that it had even reached the 
 town of Brunswick, eighteen miles away. 
 
 They were of that class of females who might be denomi- 
 nated, in .the Old Testament language, " cunning women," 
 that is, gifted with an infinite diversity of practical " faculty,* 
 which made them an essential requisite in every family for 
 miles and miles around. 
 
 It was impossible to say what they could not do: they 
 could make dresses, and make shirts and vests and panta- 
 loons, and cut out boys* jackets, and braid straw, and bleach 
 and trim bonnets, and cook and wash, and iron and mend, 
 could upholster and quilt, could nurse all kinds of sick- 
 nesses, and in default of a doctor, who was often miles away, 
 were supposed to be infallible medical oracles. 
 
 Many a human being had been ushered into life under 
 their auspices, trotted, chirruped in babyhood on their 
 knees, clothed by their handiwork in garments gradually 
 enlarging from year to year, watched by them in the last 
 sickness, and finally arrayed for the long repose by theii 
 hands. 
 
 These universally useful persons receive among us fhe 
 title of "aunt" by a sort of general consent, showing the 
 strong ties of relationship which bind them to the whole 
 human family. They are nobody's aunts in particular, but 
 aunts to human nature generally. The idea of restricting 
 their usefulness to any one family, would strike dismay 
 through a whole community. 
 
 Nobody would be so unprincipled as to think of sue h a 
 thing as having their services more than a week or tw<> a 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 21 
 
 most. Your country factotum knows better than anybody 
 else how absurd it would be 
 
 "To "give t? a part what was meant for mankind" 
 
 Nobody knew very well the ages of these useful sisters. 
 In that cold, clear, severe climate of the North the roots of 
 human existence are hard to strike ; but, if once people do 
 take to living, they come in time to a nlace where they seem 
 never to grow any older, but can always be found, like last 
 year's mullein stalks, upright, dry, and seedy, warranted to 
 last for any length of time. 
 
 Miss Roxy Toothacre, who sits trotting the baby, is a tall, 
 thin, angular woman, with sharp black eyes, a.nd hair once 
 black, but now well streaked with gray. These ravages of 
 time, however, were concealed by an ample mohair frisette 
 of glossy blackness woven on each side into a heap of stiff 
 little curls, which pushed up her cap border in rather a 
 bristling and decisive way. 
 
 In all her movements and personal habits, even to her 
 tone of voice and manner of speaking, Miss Roxy was vig- 
 orous, spicy, and decided. Her mind on all subjects wag 
 made up, and she spoke generally as one having authority ; 
 and who should, if she should not? Was she not a sort of 
 priestess and sibyl in all the most awful straits and mysteries 
 of life ? How many births, and weddings, and deaths had 
 come and gone under her jurisdiction? And amid weeping 
 or rejoicing, was not Miss Roxy still the master-spirit, 
 consulted, referred to by all ? was not her word law and 
 precedent ? Her younger sister, Miss Ruey, a pliant, cosey, 
 easy-to-be-entreated personage, plump and cushiony, revolved 
 around her as a humble satellite. Miss Roxy looked on 
 Miss Ruey as quite a frisky young thing, though under hei 
 
22 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 ample frisette of carroty hair her head might be seen whit* 
 with the same snow that had powdered that of her sister 
 Aunt Ruey had a face much resembling the kind of one yog 
 may see, reader, by looking at yourself in the convex side of 
 a silver milk-pitcher. If you try the experiment, this de- 
 scription will need no further amplification. 
 
 The two almost always went together, for the variety ol 
 talent comprised in their stock could always find employ- 
 ment in the varying wants of a family. While one nursed 
 the sick, the other made clothes for the well ; and thus they 
 were always chippering and chatting to each other, like a 
 pair of antiquated house-sparrows, retailing over harmless 
 gossips, and moralizing in that gentle jog-trot which befits 
 serious old women. In fact, they had talked over every- 
 thing in Nature, and said everything they could think of to 
 each other so often, that the opinions of one were as like 
 those of the other as two sides of a pea-pod. But as often 
 happens in cases of the sort, this was not because the two 
 were in all respects exactly alike, but because the stronger 
 one had mesmerized the weaker into consent. 
 
 Miss Roxy was the master-spirit of the two, and, like the 
 great coining machine of a mint, came down with her own 
 sharp, heavy stamp on every opinion her sister put out. 
 She was matter-of-fact, positive, and declarative to the high- 
 est degree, while her sister was naturally inclined to the 
 elegiac and the pathetic, indulging herself in sentimental 
 poetry, and keeping a store thereof in her thread-case, 
 whbh she had cut from the Christian Mirror. Miss Roxy 
 sometimes, in her brusque way, popped out observations on 
 life and things, with a droll, hard quaintness that took one's 
 breath a little, yet never failed to have a shar^ crystalliza- 
 tion of truth, frosty though it were. She was one of those 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 28 
 
 Bensible, practical creatures who tear every veil, and lay 
 their fingers on every spot in pure business-like good-will ; 
 and if we shiver at them at times, as at the first plunge of 
 a cold bath, we confess to an invigorating power in them 
 after all. 
 
 " Well, now," said Miss Roxy, giving a decisive push to 
 the tea-pot, which buried it yet deeper in the embors, " a'n't 
 it all a strange kind o' providence that this 'ere little thing 
 is left behind so ; and then their callin' on her by such a 
 strange, mournful kind of name, Mara. I thought sure 
 as could be 't was Mary, till the minister read the passage 
 from Scriptur'. Seems to me it's kind o' odd. I'd call it 
 Maria, or I 'd put an Ann on to it. Mara-ann, now, would n't 
 sound so strange." 
 
 " It 's a Scriptur' name, sister," said Aunt Ruey, " and that 
 ought to be enough for us." 
 
 " Well, I don't know," said Aunt Roxy. " Now there 
 was Miss Jones down on Mure P'int called her twins 
 Tiglath-Pileser and Shalinaneser, Scriptur' names both 
 but I never liked 'em. The boys used to call 'em Tiggy 
 and Shally, so no mortal could guess they was Scriptur' 
 
 " Well," said Aunt Ruey, drawing a sigh which caused 
 her plump proportions to be agitated in gentle waves, 
 u 't a'n't much matter, after all, what they call the little 
 thing, for 't a'n't 't all likely it 's goin' to live, cried and 
 worried all night, and kep' a-suckin' my cheek and my 
 night-gown, poor little thing ! This 'ere 's a baby that won't 
 get along without its mother. What Mis' Fennel 's a-goin' 
 to do with it when we is g:>ne, I 'm sure I don't know. It 
 comes kind o' hard on old people to be broke o' their rest 
 If it's goin' to be called home, it *s a pity, as J said, it did n't 
 go with its mother " 
 
24 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " And save the expense of another funeral," said Aunt 
 Roxy. "Now when Mis' Fennel's sister asked her what 
 she was going to do with Naomi's clothes, I could n't help 
 wonderin' when she said she should keep 'era for the 
 child." 
 
 " She had a sight of things, Naomi did," said Aunt Ruey. 
 a Nothin' was never too much for her. I don't believe lhaf 
 Cap'n Pennel ever went to Bath or Portland without bavin* 
 it in his mind to bring Naomi somethin'." 
 
 " Yes, and she had a faculty of puttin' of 'ern on," said 
 Miss Roxy, with a decisive shake of the head. " Naomi 
 was a still girl, but her faculty was unccmmon ; and I tell 
 you, Ruey, 't a'n't everybody hes faculty as hes things." 
 
 " The poor Cap'n," said Miss Ruey, " he seemed greatly 
 supported at the funeral, but he 's dreadful broke down since. 
 I went into Naomi's room this morning, and there the old 
 man was a-sittin' by her bed, and he had a pair of her shoes 
 in his hand, you know what a leetle bit of a foot she had. 
 I never saw nothin' look so kind o' solitary as that poor old 
 man did ! " 
 
 " Well," said Miss Roxy, " she was a master-hand for 
 keepin' things, Naomi was ; her drawers is just a sight ; 
 she 's got all the little presents and things they ever give 
 her since she was a baby, in one drawer. There 's a little 
 pair of red shoes there that she had when she wa' n't more 'n 
 five year old. You 'member, Ruey, the Cap'n brought 'm 
 over from Portland when we was to the house a-nmkin' Mia 1 
 Fennel's figured black silk that he brought from Calcutty. 
 You 'member they cost just five and sixpence ; but, law ! the 
 Cap'n he never grudged the money when 't was for Naomi 
 And so she 's got all her husband's keepsakes and things 
 just as nice as when he giv' 'em to her." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 25 
 
 "It's real affectin'," said Miss Ruey, "I can't all the 
 While help a-thinkin' of the Psalm, 
 
 'So fades the lovely blooming flower, 
 Frail, smiling solace of an hour; 
 So quick our transient comforts fly, 
 And pleasure only blooms to die.' " 
 
 * Yes," said Miss Roxy ; " and, Ruey, I was a-thinl.m 
 whether or no it wa'n't best to pack away them things, 
 'cause Naomi had n't fixed no baby drawers, and we seem 
 to want some." 
 
 " I was kind o' hintin' that to Mis' Pennel this morn- 
 ing," said Ruey, " but she can't seem to want to have 'em 
 touched." 
 
 " Well we may just as well come to such things first as 
 last," said Aunt Roxy ,' " 'cause if the Lord takes our 
 friends, he does take 'em ; and we can't lose 'em and 
 have 'em too, and we may as well give right up at first, 
 and done with it, that they are gone, and we V got to do 
 without 'em, and not to be hangin' on to keep things just 
 as they was." 
 
 " So I was a-tellin' Mis' Penriel," said Miss Ruey, " but 
 she '11 come to it by and by. I wish the baby might live, and 
 kind o' grow up into her mother's place." 
 
 " Well," said Miss Roxy, " I wish it might, but there 'd be 
 A sight o' trouble fetchin' on it up. Folks can do pretty well 
 with children when they 're young and spry, if they do get 
 em up nights ; but come to grandchildren, it 's pretty tough." 
 
 " I 'm a-thinkin', sister," said Miss Ruey, taking off her 
 spectacles and rubbing her nose thoughtfully, " whether or 
 no cow's milk a'n't goin to be too heartyfor it, it 's such a 
 oindlin' little thing. Now, Mis' Badger she brought up a 
 lev en-months' child, and she told me she gave it nothin' 
 I 
 
26 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 but these 'ere little seed cookies, wet in water, and it throve 
 nicely, and the seed is good for wind." 
 
 " Oh, don't tell me none of Mis' Badger's stories," said 
 Miss Roxy, " I don't believe in 'em. Cows is the Lord's 
 ordinances for bringing up babies that 's lost their mothers 
 it stands to reason they should be, and babies that can't 
 eat milk, why they can't be fetched up ; but babies can 
 eat milk, and this un will if it lives, and if it can't it won't 
 live." So saying, Miss Roxy drummed away on the little 
 back of the party in question, authoritatively, as if to pound 
 in a wholesome conviction at the outset. 
 
 " I hope," said Miss Ruey, holding up a strip of black 
 crape, and looking through it from end to end so as to test 
 its capabilities, " I hope the Cap'n and Mis' Fennel '11 get 
 some support at the prayer-meetin' this afternoon." 
 
 " It 's the right place to go to," said Miss Roxy, with 
 decision. 
 
 " Mis' Fennel said this mornin' that she was just beat out 
 tryin' to submit ; and the more she said, * Thy will be done.' 
 the more she did n't seem to feel it." 
 
 " Them 's common feelin's among mourners, Ruey. These 
 'ere forty years that I 've been round nussin', and layin'-out, 
 and tendin' funerals, I 've watched people's exercises. Peo- 
 ple 's sometimes supported wonderfully just at the time, and 
 aaaybe at the funeral ; but the throe or four weeks after, most 
 ^vcrybody, if they 's to say what they feel, is unreconciled." 
 
 " The Cap'n, he don't say nothin'," said Miss Ruey. 
 
 " No, he don't, but he looks it in his eyes," said Miss 
 Roxy ; " he 's one of the kind o' mourners as takes it deep 
 that kind don't cry ; it 's a kind o' dry, deep pain ; them 's 
 the worst to get over it, sometimes they just says nothin' 
 tnd in about six months they send for you to nuss 'em in 
 
THE PRARL OF ORK'S ISLAND. 27 
 
 ponsumplion or somethin'. Now, Mis' Fennel, she can cry 
 and she can talk, well, she '11 get over it ; but he won't get 
 no support unless the Lord reaches right down and lifts him 
 up over the world. I 've seen that happen sometimes, and 1 
 tell you, Ruey, that sort makes powerful Christians." 
 
 At that moment the old pair entered the door. 
 
 Zephaniah Fennel 2ame and stood quietly by the pillow 
 where the little form was laid, and lifted a corner of the 
 blanket. The tiny head was turned to one side, showing 
 the soft, warm cheek, and the little hand was holding tightly 
 a morsel of the flannel blanket. He stood swallowing hard 
 for a few moments. At last he said, with deep humility, to 
 the wise and mighty woman who held her, " I '11 tell you 
 what it is, Miss Roxy, I '11 give all there is in my old chest 
 yonder if you '11 only make her live." 
 
23 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Il did live. The little life, so frail, so unprofitable in 
 every mere material view, so precious in the eyes of love, 
 expanded and flowered at last into fair childhood. Not 
 without much watching and weariness. Many a night the 
 old fisherman walked the floor with the little thing in hia 
 arras, talking to it that jargon of tender nonsense which 
 fairies bring as love-gifts to all who tend a cradle. Many 
 a day the good little old grandmother called the aid of 
 gossips about her, trying various experiments of catnip, 
 and sweet fern, and bayberry, and other teas of rustic 
 reputation for baby frailties. 
 
 At the end of three years, the two graves in the lonely 
 graveyard were sodded and cemented down by smooth vel- 
 vet turf, and playing round the door of the brown house waa 
 a slender child, with ways and manners so still and singular 
 as often to remind the neighbors that she was not like other 
 children, a bud of hope and joy, but the outcome of a 
 great sorrow, a pearl washed ashore by a mighty, uproot- 
 ing tempest. They that looked at her remembered that her 
 father's eye had never beheld her, and her baptismal cup 
 had rested on her mother's coffin. 
 
 She was small of stature, beyond the wont of children of 
 her age, and moulded with a fine waxen delicacy that won 
 admiration from all eyes. Her hair was curly and golden, 
 but her eyes were dark like her mother's, and the tidi 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 2* 
 
 drooped over them in that manner which gives a peculiar 
 expression of dreamy wistfulness. 
 
 Every one of us must rememoer eyes that have a strange, 
 peculiar expression of pathos and desire, as if the spirit 
 that looked out of them were pressed with vague remem- 
 brances of a past, or but dimly comprehended the mystery of 
 its present life. Even when the baby lay in its cradle, and 
 its dark, inquiring eyes would follow now one object and 
 now another, the gossips would say the child was longing for 
 something, and Miss Roxy would still further venture to 
 predict that that child always would long and never would 
 know exactly what she was after. 
 
 That dignitary sits at this minute enthroned in the kitchen 
 corner, looking majestically over the press-board on her 
 knee, where she is pressing the next year's Sunday vest of 
 Zephaniah Fennel. As she makes her heavy tailor's goose 
 squeak on the work, her eyes follow the little delicate fairy 
 form which trips about the kitchen, busily and silently ar- 
 ranging a little grotto of gold and silver shells and sea-weed. 
 The child sings to herself as she works in a low chant, like 
 the prattle of a brook, but ever and anon she rests her little 
 arms on a chair and looks through the open kitchen-door 
 far, far off where the horizon line of the blue sea dissolves in 
 the blue sky. 
 
 " See that child now, Roxy," said Miss Ruey, who sat 
 stitching beside her ; " do look at her eyes. She 's as hand- 
 some a^ a pictur', but 'ta'n't an ordinary look she has 
 neither; she seems a contented little thing; but what makes 
 her eyes always look so kind o' wishful ? " 
 
 " Wa' n't her mother always a-longin' and a-lookin' to sea, 
 and watchin' the ships, afore she was born ? " said Miss 
 Roxy; "and didn't her heart break afore she was born? 
 
30 THE PEAKL OF ORE'S ISLATSD. 
 
 Babies like that is marked always. They don't know what 
 nils 'em, nor nobody.*' 
 
 " It 's her mother she 's after ? " said Miss Iluey. i 
 
 "The Lord only knows," said Miss Roxy ; "but tj em 
 kind o' children always seem homesick to go back where 
 they come from. They 're mostly grave and old-fashioned 
 like this 'un. If they gets past seven years, why they live ; 
 but it 's always in 'em to long ; they don't seem to be i eally 
 unhappy neither, but if anything 's ever the matter with 
 'em, it seems a great deal easier for 'era to die than to live. 
 Some say it 's the mothers longin' after 'em makes 'em feel 
 BO, and some say it 's them longin' after their mothers ; but 
 dear knows, Ruey, what anything is or what makes any- 
 thing. Children 's mysterious, that 's my mind." 
 
 "Mara, dear," said Miss Ruey, interrupting the child's 
 steady look-out, "what you thinking of?" 
 
 " Me want somefin'," said the little one. 
 
 " That 's what she 's always sayin'," said Miss Roxy. 
 
 " Me want somebody to pay wis'," continued the little one 
 
 " Want somebody to play with," said old Dame Fennel, 
 as she came in from the back-room with her hands yet 
 floury with kneading bread; "sure enough, she does. Our 
 house stands in such a lonesome place, and there a'n't any 
 children. But I never saw such a quiet little thing 
 always still and always busy." 
 
 " I '11 take her down with me to Cap'n Kittridge's," said 
 Miss Roxy, " and let her play with their little girl ; she '11 
 chirk her up, I'll warrant. She's a regular little witch, 
 Sally is, but she'll chirk her up. It a'n't good for children 
 to be so still and old-fashioned; children ought to be chil- 
 dren. Sally takes to Mara just 'cause she 's so different." 
 
 " Well, now, you may," said Dame Fennel ; " to be sure 
 
THE PEARL OP ORE'S ISLAND. 31 
 
 be can't bear her out of his sight a minute after he comes 
 in ; but after all, old folks can't be company for children." 
 
 Accordingly, that afternoon, the little Mara was arrayed 
 in a littlu blue flounced dress, which stood out like a balloon, 
 made by Miss Roxy in first-rate style, from a French fashion- 
 plate ; her golden hair was twined in manifold curls by 
 Dame Fennel, who, restricted in her ideas of ornamenta- 
 tion, spared, nevertheless, neither time nor money to en- 
 hance the charms of this single ornament to her dwelling. 
 Mara was her picture-gallery, who gave her in the twenty- 
 four hours as many Murillos or Greuzes as a lover of art 
 could desire ; and as she tied over the child's golden curls a 
 little flat hat, and saw her go dancing off along the sea- 
 sands, holding to Miss Roxy's bony finger, she felt she had 
 in her what galleries of pictures could not buy. 
 
 It was a good mile to the one story, gambrel-roofed cot- 
 tage where lived Captain Kittridge, the long, lean, brown 
 man, with his good wife of the great Leghorn bonnet, round, 
 black bead eyes, and psalm-book, whom we told you of at 
 the funeral. 
 
 The Captain, too, had followed the sea in his early life, 
 but being not, as he expressed it, " very rugged," in time 
 changed his ship for a tight little cottage on the sea-shore, 
 and devoted himself to boat-building, which he found suffi- 
 ciently lucrative to furnish his brown cottage with all that 
 his wife's heart desired, besides extra money for knick-knackg 
 when she choje to go up to Brunswick or over to Portland 
 to shop. 
 
 The Captain himself was a welcome guest at all the fire- 
 sides round, being a chatty body, and disposed to make the 
 most of hi-? foreign experiences, in which he took the usual 
 Advantages of a traveller. In fact, it was said, whether 
 
52 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 slanderously or not, that the Captain's yarns were spun U 
 order ; and as, when pressed to relate his foreign adventures, 
 he always responded with, " What would you like to hear ? * 
 it was thought that he fabricated his article to suit his mar- 
 ket. In short, there was no species of experience, finny, 
 fishy, or aquatic, no legend of strange and unaccountable 
 incident of fire or flood, no romance of foreign scenery 
 and productions, to which his tongue was not competent, 
 when he had once seated himself in a double bow-knot at 
 a neighbor's evening fireside. 
 
 His good wife, a sharp-eyed, literal body, and a vigorous 
 church -member, felt some concern of conscience on the score 
 of these narrations ; for, being their constant auditor, she, 
 better than any one else, could perceive the variations and 
 discrepancies of text which showed their mythical character, 
 and oftentimes her black eyes would snap and her knitting- 
 needles rattle with an admonitory vigor as he went on, and 
 sometimes she would unmercifully come in at the end of a 
 narrative with, 
 
 " Well, now, the Cap'n 's told them ar stories till he begins 
 to b'lieve 'em himself, I think." 
 
 But works of fiction, as we all know, if only well gotten 
 up, have always their advantages in the hearts of listeners 
 over plain, homely truth ; and so Captain Kittridge's yarns 
 were marketable fireside commodities still, despite the scepti- 
 cisms which attended them. 
 
 The afternoon sunbeams at this moment are painting the 
 gambrel-roof with a golden brown. It is September again, 
 as it was three years ago when our story commenced, and 
 the sea and sky are purple and amethystine with its Italian 
 haziness of atmosphere. 
 
 The brown house tands on a little knoll, about a hundred 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 33 
 
 yards from the open ocean. Behind it rises a ledge of rocks, 
 where cedars and hemlocks make deep shadows into which 
 the sun shoots golden shafts of light, illuminating the scarlet 
 feathers of the sumach, which threw themselves jauntily 
 forth from the crevices ; while down below, in deep, damp, 
 messy recesses, rose ferns which autumn had just begun to 
 linge with yellow and brown. The little knoll where the 
 cottage stood, had on its right hand a tiny bay, where the 
 ocean water made up amid picturesque rocks shaggy 
 and solemn. Here trees of the primeval forest, grand and 
 lordly, looked down silently into the waters which ebbed 
 and flowed daily into this little pool. Every variety of 
 those beautiful evergreens which feather the coast of 
 Maine, and dip their wings in the very spray of its ocean 
 foam, found here a representative. There were aspiring 
 black spruces, crowned on the very top with heavy coronet* 
 of cones ; there were balsamic firs, whose young buds 
 breathe the scent of strawberries ; there were cedars, black 
 as midnight clouds, and white pines with their swaying 
 plumage of needle-like leaves, strewing the ground beneath 
 witli a golden, fragrant matting ; and there were the gigan- 
 tic, wide-winged hemlocks, hundreds of years old, and with 
 long, swaying, gray beards of moss, looking white and 
 ghostly under the deep shadows of their boughs. And 
 beneath, creeping round trunk and matting over stones, 
 were many and many of those wild, beautiful things which 
 tmbellish the shadows of these northern forests. Long, 
 feathery wreaths of what are called ground-pines, ran here 
 mid there in little ruffles of green, and the prince's pine 
 raised its oriental feather, with a mimic cone on the top, aa 
 <f it conceived itself to be a grown-up tree. Whole patches 
 jf partridge-berry wove their evergreen matt'ng, dotted plei* 
 2* 
 
84 THE PEARL OF OKR'S ISLAND. 
 
 tifuliy with brilliant scarlet berries. Here and there, lha 
 rocks were covered with a curiously inwoven tapestry of 
 moss, overshot with the exquisite vine of the Linnea bore- 
 alis, which in early spring rings its two fairy bells on <he 
 end of every spray ; while elsewhere the wrinkled leaves of 
 the mayflower wove themselves through and through deep 
 beds of moss, meditating silently thoughts of the thousand 
 little cups of pink shell which they had it in hand to 
 make when the time of miracles should come round next 
 spring. 
 
 Nothing, in short, could be more quaintly fresh, wild, and 
 beautiful than the surroundings of this little cove which 
 Captain Kittridge had thought fit to dedicate to his boat- 
 buildirg operations, where he had set up his tar-kettle 
 between two great rocks above the highest tide-mark, and 
 where, at the present moment, he had a boat upon the 
 stocks. 
 
 Mrs. Kittridge, at this hour, was sitting in her clean 
 kitchen, very busily engaged in ripping up a silk dress, 
 which Miss Roxy had engaged to come and make into a 
 new one ; and, as she ripped, she cast now and then 
 an eye at the face of a tall, black clock, whose solemn 
 tick-tock was the only sound that could be heard in the 
 kitchen. 
 
 By her side, on & low stool, sat a vigorous, healthy girl 
 of six years, whose employment evidently did not please 
 her, for her well-marked black eyebrows were bent in a 
 frown, and her large black eyes looked surly and wrathful, 
 and one versed in children's grievances could easily see 
 what the matter was, she was turning a sheet ! Perhaps, 
 nappy young female reader, you don't know what that is, 
 most likely not ; for in these degenerate days the strait an^ 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 35 
 
 narrow ways of self-denial, formerly thought so wholesome 
 for little feet, are quite grass-grown with neglect. Childhood 
 nowadays is unceasingly feted and caressed, the principal 
 difficulty of the gro\vn people seeming to be to discover what 
 the little dears want, a thing not always clear to the little 
 dears themselves. But in old times, turning sheets wa3 
 thought a most especial and- wholesome discipline for young 
 girls ; in the first place, because it took off the hands of 
 their betters a very uninteresting and monotonous labor ; 
 and in the second place, because it was such a long, straight, 
 unending turnpike, that the youthful travellers, once started 
 thereupon, could go on indefinitely, without requiring guid- 
 ance and direction of their elders. For these reasons, also, 
 the task was held in special detestation by children in direct 
 proportion to their amount of life, and their ingenuity and 
 love of variety. A dull child took it tolerably well ; but to 
 a lively, energetic one, it was a perfect torture. 
 
 " I don't see the use of sewing up sheets one side, and 
 ripping up the other," at last said Sally, breaking the mo- 
 notonous tick-tock of the clock by an observation which 
 has probably occurred to every child in similar circum- 
 stances. 
 
 " Sally Kittridge, if you say another word about that ar 
 sheet, I '11 whip you," was the very explicit rejoinder ; and 
 there was a snap of Mrs. Kittridge's black eyes, that seemed 
 to make it likely that she would keep her word. It was 
 unswered by another snap from the six-year-old eyes, as 
 Sally comforted herself with thinking that when she was a 
 Woman she 'd speak her mind Dut in pay for all this. 
 
 At this moment a burst of silvery child-laughter rang 
 out, and there appeared in the door- way, illuminated by the 
 afternoon sunbeams, the vision of Miss Roxy's tall, lank 
 
56 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 figure, with the little golden-haired, blue-robed fairy, hang- 
 ing like a gay butterfly upon the tip of a thorn-bush. Sally 
 dropped the sheet and clapped her hands, unnoticed by 
 her mother, who rose to pay her respects to the " cunning 
 woman " of the neighborhood. 
 
 u "Well, now, Miss Roxy, I was 'mazin' afraid you wer'n't 
 a-comin'. I 'd just been an' got my silk ripped up, and 
 did n't know how to get a step farther without you." 
 
 " Well, I was finishin' up Cap'n Fennel's best panta- 
 loons," said Miss Roxy ; " and I Ve got 'em along so, Ruey 
 can go on with 'em ; and I told Mis' Fennel I must come 
 te you, if 't was only for a day ; and I fetched the little girl 
 down, 'cause the little thing 's so kind o' lonesome like. I 
 thought Sally could play with her, and chirk her up a 
 little." 
 
 " Well, Sally," said Mrs. Kittridge, " stick in your needle, 
 fold up your sheet, put your thimble in your work-pocket, 
 and then you may take the little Mara down to the cove to 
 play ; but be sure you don't let her go near the tar, nor wet 
 her shoes. D'ye hear ? " 
 
 " Yes, ma'am," said Sally, who had sprung up in light and 
 radiance, like a translated creature, at this unexpected turn 
 of fortune, and performed the welcome orders with a celerity 
 which showed how agreeable they were ; and then, stooping 
 and catching the little one in her arms, disappeared through 
 the door, with the golden curls fluttering over her own crow- 
 black hair. 
 
 The fact was, that Sally, at that moment, was as happy as 
 liuman creature could be, with a keenness of happiness tha* 
 children who have never been made to turn sheets of a brigh' 
 fcfternoon can never realize. 
 
 The sun was yet an hour high, as she saw, by the flash of 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 37 
 
 her shrewd, time-keeping eye, and she could bear her little 
 prize down to the cove, and collect unknown quantities of 
 gold and silver shells, and star-fish, and salad-dish si i ells, 
 and white pebbles for her, besides quantities of well-turned 
 shavings, brown and white, from the pile which constantly 
 was falling under her father's joiner's bench, and with whick 
 she would make long extemporaneous tresses, so that thej 
 might play at being mermaids, like those that she had heard 
 her father tell about in some of his sea-stories. 
 
 " Now, railly, Sally, what you got there ? " said Captain 
 Kittridge, as he stood in his shirt-sleeves peering over his 
 joiner's bench, to watch the little one whom Sally had 
 dumped down into a nest of clean white shavings. " Wai', 
 wal', I should think you M a-stolen the big doll I see in a 
 shop-window the last time I was to Portland. So this is 
 Fennel's little girl ? poor child ! " 
 
 " Yes, father, and we want some nice shavings." 
 
 " Stay a bit, I '11 make ye a few a-purpose," said the old 
 man, reaching his long, bony arm, with the greatest ease, to 
 the farther part of his bench, and bringing up a board, from 
 which he proceeded to roll off shavings in fine satin rings, 
 which perfectly delighted the hearts of the children, and 
 made them dance with glee; and, truth to say, reader, 
 there are coarser and homelier things in the w orld than 
 a well-turned shaving. 
 
 " There, go now," he said, when both of them stood with 
 both hands full ; " go now and play ; and mind you don't le; 
 the baby wet her feet, Sally ; them shoes o' hern must have 
 eost five-and-sixpence at the very least." 
 
 That sunny Lour before sundown seemed as long to Sally 
 as the whole seam of the sheet ; for childhood's joys are all 
 pure gold ; and as she ran up and down the white sands, 
 
38 TIIE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 shouting at every shell she found, or darted up into the 
 overhanging forest for checkerberries and ground-pine, all 
 the sorrows of the morning came no more into her remem- 
 brance. 
 
 The little Mara had one of those sensitive, excitable na- 
 tures, on which every external influence acts with immediate 
 power. Stimulated by the society of her energetic, buoyant 
 little neighbor, she no longer seemed wishful or pensive, but 
 kindled into a perfect flame of wild delight, and gambolled 
 about the shore like a blue and gold-winged fly ; while her 
 bursts of laughter made the squirrels and blue jays look 
 out inquisitively from their fastnesses in the old evergreens. 
 Gradually the sunbeams faded from the pines, and the waves 
 of the tide in the little cove came in, solemnly tinted with 
 purple, flaked with orange and crimson, borne in from a 
 great rippling sea of fire, into which the sun had just 
 sunk. 
 
 " Mercy on us them children ! " said Miss Roxy. 
 
 " He's bringin' 'em along," said Mrs. Kittridge, as she 
 looked out of the window and saw the tall, lank form of the 
 Captain, with one child seated on either shoulder, and hold- 
 ing on by his head. 
 
 The two children were both in the highest state of excite- 
 ment, but never was there a more marked contrast of nature. 
 The one seemed a perfect type of well-developed childish 
 health and vigor, good solid flesh and bones, with glowing 
 skin, brilliant eyes, shining teeth, well-knit, supple limbs, 
 vigorously and healthily beautiful ; while the other appeared 
 one of those aerial mixtures of cloud and fire, whose radiance 
 seems scarcely earthly. A physiologist, looking at the child 
 would shake his head, seeing one of those perilous organiza- 
 tions, all nerve and brain, which come to life under the clear 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 39 
 
 Simulating skies of America, and, burning with the intensity 
 of lighted phosphorus, waste themselves too early. 
 
 The little Mara seemed like a fairy sprite, possessed with 
 a wild spirit of glee. She laughed and clapped her hands 
 incessantly, and when set down on the kitchen-floor spun 
 round Ifke a little elf; and that night it was late and long 
 before her wide, wakeful eyes could be veiled iu sleep. 
 
 "Company jist sets this 'ere child crazy," said MJ3E 
 Roxy; "it's jist her lonely way of livin' ; a pity Mi?' 
 Fennel hadn't another child to keep company along with 
 her." 
 
 " Mis' Fennel oughter be trainin' of her up to work," said 
 Mrs. Kittridge. " Sally could oversew and hem when she 
 wa' n't more 'n three years old ; nothin' straightens out chil- 
 dren like work. Mis' Fennel she jist keeps that ar child to 
 look at." 
 
 "All children a'n't alike, Mis' Kittridge," said Misa 
 Roxy, sententiously. " This 'un a'n't like your Sally. * A 
 hen and a bumble-bee can't be fetched up alike, fix it how 
 you will!'" 
 
40 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 % 
 
 ZEPHANIAH FENNEL came back to his house in the even* 
 ing, after Miss Roxy had taken the little Mara away. He 
 looked for the flowery face and golden hair as he came 
 towards the door, and put his hand in his vest-pocket, where 
 he had deposited a small store of very choice shells and sea 
 curiosities, thinking of the widening of those dark, soft eyes 
 when he should present them. 
 
 " Where 's Mara ? " was the first inquiry after he had 
 crossed the threshold. 
 
 *' Why, Roxy 's been an' taken her down to Cap'n Kit- 
 tridge's to spend the night," said Miss Ruey. " Roxy 's 
 gone to help Mis' Kittridge to turn her spotted gray and 
 black silk. We was talking this mornin' whether 'no '< would 
 turn, 'cause / thought the spot was overshot, and would n't 
 make up on the wrong side ; but Roxy she says it 's one of 
 them ar Cnlcutty silks that has two sides to 'em, like the 
 one you bought Miss Fennel, that we made up for her, you 
 know ; " and Miss Ruey arose and gave a finishing snap to 
 the Sunday pantaloons, which she had been left to " finish 
 off," which snap said, as plainly as words could say thai 
 there was a good job disposed of. 
 
 Zophaniah stood looking as helpless as animals of the 
 male kind generally do when appealed to with such pro- 
 lixity on feminine details; in reply to it all, only asked 
 meekly, 
 
 "Where's Mary?" 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 41 
 
 tt Mis' Fennel ? Why, she's up chamber. She '11 be down 
 in a minute, she said ; she thought she 'd have time afore 
 supper to get to the bottom of the big chist, and see if that 
 'ere vest pattern a'n't there, and them sticks o' twist for the 
 button-holes, 'cause Roxy she says she never see nothin' so 
 rotten as that 'ere twist we V been a-workin' with, that Mis 
 Fennel got over to Portland ; it 's a clear cheat, and Mis' 
 Fennel she give more 'n half a cent a stick more for't than 
 what Roxy got for her up to Brunswick ; so you see these 
 'ere Portland stores charge up, and their things want lookin' 
 after." 
 
 Here Mrs. Fennel entered the room, " the Captain " 
 addressing her eagerly, 
 
 " How came you to let Aunt Roxy take Mara off so far, 
 and be gone so long ? " 
 
 " Why, law me, Captain Fennel ! the little thing seems 
 kind o' lonesome. Chil'en want chil'en ; Miss Roxy says 
 she.'s altogether too sort o' still and old-fashioned, and must 
 have child's company to chirk her up, and so she took her 
 down to play with Sally Kittridge ; there 's no manner of 
 danger or harm in it, and she'll be back to-morrow after- 
 noon, and Mara will have a real good time." 
 
 " Wai', now, really," said the good man, " but it 's 'mazin' 
 lonesome." 
 
 " Cap'n Fennel, you Y gettin* to make an idol of that 'ere 
 child," said Miss Ruey. "We have to watch our hearts, 
 It minds me of the hymn, 
 
 4 The fondness of a creature's love, 
 
 How strong it strikes the sense, 
 Thither tho warm affections move, 
 N)r can we call then thence.' " 
 
 Mvss Ruey's mode of getting off poetry, in a sort of high 
 
42 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 pitched canter, with a strong thump on every accented sylla- 
 Lie, might have provoked a smile in more sophisticated 
 society, but Zephaniah listened to her with deep gravity, 
 and answered, 
 
 "I'm 'fraid there's truth in what you say, Aunt Ruey. 
 When her mother was called away, I thought that was a 
 warning I never should forget ; but now I seem to be like 
 Jonah, I 'm restin' in the shadow of my gourd, and my 
 heart is glad because of it. I kind o' trembled at tha 
 prayer-meetin' when we was a-singin' 
 
 ' The dearest idol I have known, 
 
 Whate'er that idol be, 
 Help me to tear it from Thy throne, 
 And worship only Thee.' " 
 
 " Yes," said Miss Ruey, " Roxy says if the Lord should 
 take us up short on our prayers, it would make sad work 
 with us sometimes." 
 
 " Somehow," said Mrs, Fennel, " it seems to me just her 
 mother over again. She don't look like her. I think her 
 hair and complexion comes from the Badger blood ; my 
 mother had that sort o' hair and skin, but then she has 
 ways like Naomi, and it seems as if the Lord had kind o' 
 given Naomi back to us ; so I hope she 's goin to be spared 
 to us." 
 
 Mrs. Fennel had one of those natures gentle, trustful, 
 and hopeful, because not very deep ; she was one of the 
 little children of the world whose faith rests on childlike 
 ignorance, and who know not the deeper needs of deeper 
 natures ; such see only the sunshine and forget the storm. 
 
 This conversation had been going on to the accompani- 
 ment of a clatter of plates and spoons and dishes, and the 
 fizzling of sausages, prefacing the evening meal, to whicb 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 43 
 
 all now sat down after a lengthened grace from Zepha- 
 aiah. 
 
 " There 's a tremendous gale a-brewin'," he said as they 
 sat at table. " I noticed the clouds to-night as I was comin 
 home, and somehow I felt kind o' as if I wanted all our 
 folks snug in-doors." 
 
 " Why law, husband, Cap'n Kittridge's house is as good 
 as ours, if it does blow. You never can seem to remember 
 that houses don't run aground or strike on rocks in storms." 
 
 " The Cap'n puts me in mind of old Cap'n Jeduth Scran- 
 ton," said Miss Ruey, " that built that queer house down by 
 Middle Bay. The Cap'n he would insist on havin' on't jist 
 like a ship, and the closet-shelves had holes for the tumblers 
 and dishes, and he had all his tables and chairs battened 
 down, and so when it came a gale, they say the old Cap'n 
 used to sit in his chair and hold on to hear the wind blow." 
 
 " Well, I tell you," said Captain Fennel, " those that has 
 followed the seas hears the wind with different ears from 
 lands-people. When you lie with only a plank between you 
 and eternity, and hear the voice of the Lord on the waters, 
 it don't sound as it does on shore." 
 
 And in truth, as they were speaking, a fitful gust swept 
 by the house, wailing and screaming and rattling the win- 
 dows, and after it came the heavy, hollow moan of the surf 
 on the beach, like the wild, angry howl of some savage ani- 
 mal just beginning to be lashed into fury. 
 
 " Sure enough the wind is rising," said Miss Ruey, getting 
 up from the table, and flattening her snub nose against the 
 window-pane. " Dear me, how dark it is ! Mercy on us, 
 how the waves come in ! all of a sheet of foam. I pity 
 the ships that 's comin' on coast such a night." 
 
 The storm seemed to have burst out with a sudden fury, 
 
44 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 as if myriads of howling demons had all at once been loos, 
 ened in the air. Now they piped and whistled with eldritch 
 screech round the corners of the house now they thun- 
 dered down the chimney and now they shook the door 
 and rattled the casement and anon mustering their forces 
 with wild ado, seemed to career over the house, and sail 
 high up into the murky air. The dash of the rising tide 
 came with successive crash upon crash like the discharge of 
 heavy artillery, seeming to. shake the very house, and the 
 spray borne by the wind dashed whizzing against the win- 
 dow-panes. 
 
 Zephaniah, rising from supper, drew up the little stand 
 that had the family Bible on it, and the three old time-worn 
 people sat themselves as seriously down to evening worship 
 as if they had been an extensive congregation. They raised 
 the old psalm-tune which our fathers called " Complaint," 
 and the cracked, wavering voices of the women, with the 
 deep, rough bass of the old sea-captain, rose in the uproar 
 of the storm with a ghostly, strange wildness, like the 
 scream of the curlew or the wailing of the wind : 
 
 " Spare us, Lord, aloud we pray, 
 
 Nor let our sun go down at noon: 
 Thy years are an eternal day, 
 And must thy children die so soon?" 
 
 Miss Ruey valued herself on singing a certain weird and 
 exalted part which in ancient days used to be called counter, 
 and which wailed and gyrated in unimaginable heights of 
 the scale, much as you may hear a shrill, fine-voiced wind 
 over a chimney-top ; but altogether, the deep and earnest 
 gravity with which the three filled up the pauses in the 
 storm with their quaint minor key, had something singularly 
 impressive. When the singing was over, Zephaniah read, 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 45 
 
 to the accompaniment of wind and sea, the words of poetry 
 made on old Hebrew shores, in the dim, gray dawn of the 
 world : 
 
 " The voice of the Lord is upon the waters ; the God of 
 glory thundereth ; the Lord is upon many waters. The 
 voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness ; the Lord shaketh 
 the wilderness of Kadesh. The Lord sitteth upon the floods, 
 yea, the Lord sitteth King forever. The Lord will give 
 strength to his people ; yea, the Lord will bless his people 
 with peace." 
 
 How natural and home-born sounded this old piece of 
 Oriental poetry in the ears of the three ! The wilderness of 
 Kadesh, with its great cedars, was doubtless Orr's Island, 
 where even now the goodly fellowship of black-winged trees 
 were groaning and swaying, and creaking as the breath of 
 the Lord passed over them. 
 
 And the three old people kneeling by their smouldering 
 fireside, amid the general uproar, Zephaniah began in the 
 words of a prayer which Moses the man of God made long 
 ago under the shadows of Egyptian pyramids : " Lord, thou 
 hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the 
 mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed 
 the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlast- 
 ing, thou art God." 
 
 We hear sometimes in these days that the Bible is no 
 more inspired of God than many other books of historic and 
 poetic, merit. It is a fact, however, that the Bible answers 
 a strange and wholly exceptional purpose by thousands of 
 firesides on all shores of the earth ; and, till some other book 
 can be found to do the same thing,, it will not be surprising 
 if.a belief of its Divine orig-'n be one of the ineffaceable idsa* 
 af the popular mind. 
 
46 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 It will be a long while before a translation from Homer 
 or a chapter in the Koran, or any of the beauties of Shak 
 speare, will be read in a stormy night on Orr's Island with 
 the same sense of a Divine presence as the Psalms of Davio, 
 or the prayer of Moses the man of God. 
 
 Boom! boom! "What's that?" said Zephaniah, start- 
 ing, as they rose up from prayer. " Hark ! again, that 's a 
 gun, there's a ship in distress." 
 
 " Poor souls," said Miss Ruey ; " it 's an awful night ! " 
 
 The captain began to put on his sea-coat. 
 
 " You aVt a-goin' out ? " said his wife. 
 
 " I must go out along the beach a spell, and see if I can 
 hear any more of that ship." 
 
 " Mercy on us ; the wind '11 blow you over 1 " said Aunt 
 Ruey. 
 
 " I rayther think I Ve stood wind before in my day," said 
 Zephaniah, a grim smile stealing over his weather-beaten 
 cheeks. In fact, the man felt a sort of secret relationship 
 to the storm, as if it were in some manner a family connec- 
 tion a wild, roystering cousin, who drew him out by a 
 rough attraction of comradeship. 
 
 " Well, at any rate," said Mrs. Pennel, producing a large 
 tin lantern perforated with many holes, in which she placed 
 a tallow candle, "take this with you, and don't stay out 
 long." 
 
 The kitchen-door opened, and the first gust of wind took 
 off the old man's hat and nearly blew him prostrate. He 
 same back and shut the door. " I ought to have known bet- 
 ter," he said, knotting his pocket-handkerchief over his head, 
 after which he waited for a momentary lull, and went ou. 4 
 into the storm. 
 
 Miss Ruey looked through the window-pane, and saw th 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 47 
 
 fight go twinkling far down into the gloom, and ever and 
 anon came the mournful boom of distant guns. 
 
 " Certainly there is a ship in trouble somewhere," she 
 said. 
 
 " He never can be easy when he hears these guns," said 
 Mrs. Fennel ; " but what can he do, or anybody, in such a 
 fitorm, the wind blowing right on to shore ? " 
 
 " I should n't wonder if Cap'n Kittridge should be out on 
 the beach, too," said Miss Ruey ; " but laws, he a'n't much 
 more than one of these 'ere old grasshoppers you see after 
 frost comes. Well, any way, there a'n't much help in man 
 if a ship comes ashore in such a gale as this, such a dark 
 night too." 
 
 "It's kind o' lonesome to have poor little Mara away 
 such a night as this is," said Mrs. Fennel ; "but who 
 would a-thought it this afternoon, when Aunt Roxy took 
 her?" 
 
 " I 'member my grandmother had a silver cream-pitcher 
 that come ashore in a storm on Mare F'int," said Miss Ruey, 
 as she sat trotting her knitting-needles. " Grand'ther found 
 it, half full of sand, under a knot of sea-weed way up on 
 the beach. It had a coat of arms on it, might have be- 
 longed to some grand family, that pitcher j in the Tootbacre 
 family yet." 
 
 " I remember when I was a girl," said Mrs. Fennel, 
 " seeing the hull of a ship that went on Eagle Island 
 it run way up in a sort of gully between two rocks, and 
 lay there years. They split pieces off it sometimes to make 
 fires when they wanted to make a chowder down on the 
 beach." 
 
 " My aunt, Lois Toothacre, that lives down by Middle 
 Hay," said Miss Ruey, " used to tell about a dreadful blow 
 
48 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 they had once in time of the equinoctial storm, and 
 what was remarkable, she insisted that she heard a baby 
 cryin' out in the storm she heard it just as plain aa 
 could be." 
 
 " Laws a-mercy," said Mrs. Fennel, nervously, " it was 
 nothing but the wind, it always screeches like a child 
 crying ; or maybe it was the seals ; seals will cry just like 
 bnbes." 
 
 " So they told her, but no ; she insisted she knew the 
 differense, it was a baby. Well, what do you think, when 
 the storm cleared off, they found a baby's cradle washed 
 ashore sure enough ! " 
 
 4< But they did n't find any baby," said Mrs. Fennel, 
 nervously. 
 
 " No, they searched the beach far and near, and that 
 cradle was all they found. Aunt Lois took it in it was 
 a very good cradle, and she took it to use, but every time 
 there came up a gale, that ar cradle would rock, rock, jist as 
 if somebody was a-sittin' by it ; and you could stand across 
 die room and see there wa' n't nobody there." 
 
 " You make me all of a shiver," said Mrs. Fennel. 
 
 This, of course, was just what Miss Ruey intended, and 
 she went on : 
 
 " Wai', you see they kind o' got used to it they found 
 there wa' n't no harm come of its rockin', and so they did ri't 
 mind ; but Aunt Lois had a sister Cerinthy that was a 
 weakly girl, and had the janders. Cerinthy was one of 
 the sort that 's born with veils over their faces, and can see 
 ^perits ; and one time Cerinthy was a-visitin' Lois after her 
 second baby was born, and there came up a blow, and Cerin- 
 thy comes out of the keepin'-room, where the cradle was 
 a-standin', and says, * Sister,' says she, * who 's that woman 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 49 
 
 ttin' rockin' the cradle ?' and Aunt Lois says she, * Why, 
 there a'n't nobody. That ar cradle always will rock in a 
 gale, but I've got used to it, and don't mind it.' 'Well,' 
 Bays Cerinthy, 'jist as true as you live, I jist saw a woman 
 with a silk gown on, and long black hair a-hangin' down, and 
 her face was pale as a sheet, sittin' rockin' that ar cradle, 
 and she looked round at me with her great black eyes kind 
 o' mournful and wishful, and then she stooped down over the 
 cradle.' ' Well/ says Lois, ' I a'n't goin' to have no such 
 doin'a in my house,' and she went right in and took up the 
 baby, and the very next day she jist had the cradle split up 
 fcr kindlin' ; and that night, if you '11 believe, when they 
 was a-burnin' of it, they heard, jist as plain as could be, a 
 baby scream, scream, screamin' round the house ; but after 
 that they never heard it no more." 
 
 " I don't like such stories," said Dame Fennel, " 'specially 
 to-night when Mara's away. I shall get to hearing all 
 sorts of noises in the wind. I wonder when Cap'n Fennel 
 will be back." 
 
 And the good woman put more wood on the fire, and as 
 th3 tongues of flame streamed up high and clear, she ap- 
 proached her face to the window-pane and started back with 
 half a scream, as a pale, anxious visage with sad dark eyes 
 Deemed to approach her. It took a moment or two for her 
 to discover that she had seen only the reflection of her own 
 wixious, excited face, the pitchy blackness without having 
 converted the window into a sort of dark mirror. 
 
 Miss Ruey meanwhile began solacing herself by singing, 
 in her chimney-corner, a very favorite sacred melody, 
 which contrasted oddly enough with the driving storm and 
 howling sea : 
 a 
 
50 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Haste, my beloved, haste away, 
 Cut short the hours of thy delay; 
 Fly like the bounding hart or roe, 
 Over the hills where spices grow." 
 
 The tune u as called " Invitation " one of those pro 
 fusely llorid in runs, and trills, and quavers, which delighted 
 the ears of a former generation ; and Miss Ruey, innocently 
 unconscious of the effect of old age on her voice, ran then 
 up and down, and out and in, in a way that would have 
 made a laugh, had there been anybody there to notice or 
 to laugh. 
 
 " I remember singin' that ar to Mary Jane Wilson the 
 very night she died," said Aunt Ruey, stopping. " She 
 wanted me to sing to her, and it was jist between two and 
 three in the mornin' ; there was jist the least red streak of 
 daylight, and I opened the window and sat there and sung, 
 and when I come to ' over the hills where spices grow,' I 
 looked round and there was a change in Mary Jane, and I 
 went to the bed, and says she very bright, ' Aunt Ruey, the 
 Beloved has come,' and she was gone afore I could raise her 
 up on her pillow. I always think of Mary Jane at them 
 words ; if ever there was a broken-hearted crittur took 
 home, it was her." 
 
 At this moment Mrs. Fennel caught sight through the 
 window of the gleam of the returning lantern, and in a 
 moment Captain Fennel entered dripping with rain and 
 spray. 
 
 " Why Cap'n ! you 're e'en a'most drowned," said Aunl 
 Ruey. 
 
 " How long have you been gone ? You must have bees 
 R great ways," said Mrs. Fennel. 
 
 *Yes, I have been down to Cap'n Kittridge's. I me> 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 51 
 
 Kittridge out on the beach. We heard the guns plain 
 enough, but could n't see anything. I went on down to 
 Kittridge's to get a look at little Mara." 
 
 " Well, she 's all well enough ? " said Mrs. Fennel, 
 anxiously. 
 
 " Oh, yes, well enough. Miss Roxy showed her to me in 
 
 the trundle-bed, 'long with Sally. The little thing was lyinf 
 
 imiling in her sleep, with her cheek right up against Sally's 
 
 I took comfort looking at her. I could n't help thinking 
 
 So he giveth his beloved sleep I' w 
 
52 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DURING the night and storm, the little Mara had l&ifi 
 Bleeping as quietly as if the cruel sea, that had made her an 
 orphan from her birth, were her kind-tempered old grand- 
 father singing her to sleep, as he often did, with a 
 somewhat hoarse voice truly, but with ever an undertone 
 of protecting love. 
 
 But toward daybreak, there came very clear and bright 
 into her childish mind a dream, having that vivid distinct- 
 ness which often characterizes the dreams of early childhood. 
 
 She thought she saw before her the little cove where she 
 and Sally had been playing the day before, with its broad 
 sparkling white beach of sand curving round its blue sea- 
 mirror, and studded thickly with gold and silver shells. 
 She saw the boat of Captain Kittridge upon the stocks, 
 and his tar-kettle with the smouldering fires flickering under 
 it ; but, as often happens in dreams, a certain rainbow viv- 
 idness and clearness invested everything, and she and 
 Sally were jumping for joy at the beautiful things they 
 found on the beach. 
 
 Suddenly, there stood before them a woman, dressed in a 
 long white garment. She was very pale, with sweet, serious 
 dark eyes, and she led by the hand a black-eyed boy, who 
 seemed to be crying and looking about as for something 
 lost. She dreamed that she stood still, and the woman came 
 toward her, looking at her with sweet, sad eyes, till th 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 53 
 
 :hild seemed to feel them in every fibre of her frame. The 
 woman laid her hand on her head a.s if in blessing, and then 
 put the boy's hand in hers, and said, " Take him, Mara, he is 
 a playmate for you ; " and with that the little boy's face flashed 
 out into a merry laugh. The woman faded away, and the 
 three children remained playing together, gathering sheila 
 and pebbles of a wonderful brightness. So vivid was this 
 vision, that the little one awoke laughing with pleasure, and 
 searched under her pillows for the strange and beautiful 
 things that she had been gathering in dreamland. 
 
 " What 's Mara looking after ? " said Sally, sitting up in 
 her trundle-bed, and speaking in the patronizing motherly 
 tone she commonly used to her little playmate. 
 
 " All gone, pitty boy all gone ! " said the child, looking 
 round regretfully, and shaking her golden head ; " pity lady 
 all gone ! " 
 
 " How queer she talks ! " said Sally, who had awakened 
 with the project of building a sheet-house with her fairy neigh- 
 bor, and was beginning to loosen the upper sheet and dispose 
 the pillows with a view to this species of architecture. 
 
 " Come, Mara, let 's make a pretty house ! " she said. 
 
 "Pitty boy out dere out dere ! " said the little one, 
 pointing to the window, with a deeper expression than ever 
 of wishfulness in her eyes. 
 
 " Come, Sally Kittridge, get up this minute ! " said the 
 voice of her mother, entering the door at this moment ; " and 
 here, put these clothes on to Mara, the child must n't run 
 round in her best ; it 's strange, now, Mary Fennel never 
 Junks of such tilings." 
 
 Sally, who was of an efficient temperament, was prepar- 
 ing energetically to second these commands of her mother, 
 and endue her little neighbor with a coarse brown stuff 
 
54 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 Jress, somewhat faded and patched, which she herself ha<] 
 outgrown when of Mara's age ; with shoes, which had been 
 coarsely made to begin with, and very much battered by 
 time; but, quite to her surprise, the child, generally so 
 passive and tractable, opposed a most unexpected and des- 
 perate resistance to this operation. She began to cry and to 
 sob and shake her curly head, throwing her tiny hands out 
 in a wild species of freakish opposition, which had, notwith- 
 standing, a quaint and singular grace about it, while she 
 Btated her objections in all the little English at her command. 
 
 "Mara don't want Mara want pitty boo des and 
 pitty shoes." 
 
 " Why, was ever anything like it ? " said Mrs. Kittridge 
 < Miss Roxy, as they both were drawn to the door by the 
 outcry ; " here *s this child won't have decent every-day 
 clothes put on her, she must be kept dressed up like a 
 princess. Now, that ar 's French calico ! " said Mrs. Kit- 
 tridge, holding up the controverted blue dress, " and that ar 
 never cost a cent under fi ve-and-sixpence a yard ; it takes a 
 yard and a half to make it, and it must have been a good 
 day's work to make it up ; call that three-and-sixpence more, 
 and with them pearl buttons and thread and all, that ar dress 
 never cost less than a dollar and seventy-five, and here she 'a 
 goin' to run out every day in it ! " 
 
 " Well, well ! " said Miss Roxy, who had taken the sob- 
 bing fair one in her lap, " you know, Mis' Kittridge, this 
 'ere 's a kind o' pet lamb, an old-folks' darling, and things be 
 with her as they be, and we can't make her over, and she 's 
 such a nervous little thing we must n't cross her." Saying 
 which, she proceeded to dress the child in her own clothes. 
 
 " If you had a good large checked apron, I would n't mind 
 putting that on her!" added Miss Roxy, after she had ar 
 rayed the child. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 55 
 
 " Here 's one," said Mrs. Kittridge ; " that may save her 
 rfothes some." 
 
 Miss Roxy began to put on the wholesome garment ; but, 
 rather to her mortiti cation, the little fairy began to weep 
 again in a most heart-broken manner. 
 
 " Don't want che't apon." 
 
 * Why don't Mara want nice checked apron ? " said Miss 
 Roxy, in that extra cheerful tone by which children are to 
 be made to believe they have mistaken their own mind. 
 
 " Don't want it! " with a decided wave of the little hand; 
 u I 's too pitty to wear che't apon." 
 
 " Well ! well ! " said Mrs. Kittridge, rolling up her eyes, 
 " did I ever ! no, I never did. If there a'n't depraved na- 
 tur* a-comin' out early. Well, if she says she 's pretty now, 
 what '11 it be when she 's fifteen ? " 
 
 " She '11 learn to tell a lie about it by that time," said 
 Miss Roxy, " and say she thinks she 's horrid. The 
 child is pretty, and the truth comes uppermost with her 
 now." 
 
 " Haw ! haw ! haw ! " burst with a great crash from Cap- 
 tain Kittridge, who had come in behind, and stood silently 
 listening during this conversation ; " that 's musical now ; 
 come here, my little maid, you are too pretty for checked 
 aprons, and no mistake;" and seizing the child in his long 
 arms, he tossed her up like a butterfly, while her sunny 
 curls shone in the morning light. 
 
 ' There 's one comfort about the child, Miss Kittridge," 
 laid Aunt Roxy; "she's one of them that dirt won't stick 
 to. I never knew her to stain or tear her clothes, she 
 fcLways come in jist so nice." 
 
 " She a'n't much like Sally, then ! " said Mrs. Kittridge. 
 4 That girl '11 run through more clothes ! Only last week 
 
$<> THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Bhe walked the crown out of my old black straw bonnet, 
 and left it hanging on the top of a blackberry-bush." 
 
 " Wai', wal'," said Captain Kittridge, " as to dressin' this 
 ere child, why, ef Fennel 's a mind to dress her in cloth 
 of gold, it 's none of our business ! He 's rich enough for 
 all he wants to do, and so let 's eat our breakfast and mind 
 our own business." 
 
 After breakfast Captain Kittridge took the two children 
 down to the cove, to investigate the state of his boat and 
 tar-kettle, set high above the highest tide-mark. 
 
 The sun had risen gloriously, the sky was of an intense, 
 vivid blue, and only great snowy islands of clouds, lying in 
 silver banks on the horizon, showed vestiges of last night's 
 storm. The whole wide sea was one glorious scene of form- 
 ing and dissolving mountains of blue and purple, breaking 
 at the crest into brilliant silver. All round the island the 
 waves were constantly leaping and springing into jets and 
 columns of brilliant foam, throwing themselves high up, in 
 silvery cataracts, into the very arms of the solemn evergreen 
 forests which overhung the shore. 
 
 The sands of the little cove seemed harder and whiter 
 than ever, and were thickly bestrewn with the shells and 
 sea-weed which the upturnings of the night had brought in. 
 There lay what might have been fringes and fragments of 
 sea-gods' vestures, blue, crimson, purple, and orange sea- 
 weeds, wreathed in tangled ropes of kelp and sea-grass, cr 
 lying separately scattered on .the sands. The children ran 
 wildly, shouting as they began gathering sea-treasures ; and 
 Sally, with the air of an experienced hand in the business, 
 untwisted the coils of ropy sea-weed, from which every 
 moment she disengaged some new treasure, in some rarei 
 shell or smoother pebble. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR S ISLAND. 57 
 
 Suddenly, the child shook out something from a knotted 
 mass of sea-grass, which she held up with a perfect shriek 
 of delight. 
 
 It was a bracelet of hair, fastened by a brilliant clasp 
 of green, sparkling stones, such as she had never seen be- 
 fore. 
 
 She redoubled her cries of delight, as she saw it sparkle 
 between her and the sun, calling upon her father. 
 
 " Father ! father ! do come here, and see what I 've 
 found ! " 
 
 He came quickly, and took the bracelet from the child's 
 hand; but, at the same moment, looking over her head, he 
 caught sight of an object partially concealed behind a pro- 
 jecting rock. He took a step forward, and uttered an 
 exclamation, 
 
 " Well, well ! sure enough ! poor things ! " 
 
 There lay, bedded in sand and sea-weed, a woman with a 
 little boy clasped in her arms ! Both had been carefully 
 lashed to a spar, but the child was held to the bosom of the 
 woman, with a pressure closer than any knot that mortal 
 hands could tie. 
 
 Both were deep sunk in the sand, into which had streamed 
 the woman's long, dark hair, which sparkled with glittering 
 morsels of sand and pebbles, and with those tiny, brilliant, 
 yellow shells which are so numerous on that shore. 
 
 The woman was both young .and beautiful. The fore- 
 head, damp with ocean-spray, was like sculptured marble, 
 the eyebrows dark and decided in their outline ; but the 
 long, heavy, black fringes had shu* down, as a solemn cur- 
 tain, over all the history of mortal joy or sorrow that those 
 eyes had looked upon. A wedding-ring gleamed on the 
 \parble hand ; but the sea had divorced all human ties, and 
 3* 
 
58 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 taken her as a bride to itself. And, in truth, it seemed to 
 have made to her a worthy bed, for she was all folded aad 
 inwreathed in sand and shells and sea-weeds, and a great, 
 weird-looking leaf of kelp, some yards in length, lay twined 
 around her like a shroud. 
 
 The child that lay in her bosom had hair, and face, and 
 eyelashes like her own, and his little hands were holding 
 tightly a portion of the black dress which she wore. 
 
 " Cold, cold, stone dead ! " was the muttered excla- 
 mation of the old seaman, as he bent over the woman. 
 
 " She must have struck her head there," he mused, as he 
 laid his finger on a dark, bruised spot on her temple. Ho 
 laid his hand on the child's heart, and put one finger under 
 the arm to see if there was any lingering vital heat, and then 
 hastily cut the lashings that bound the pair to the spar, and 
 with difficulty disengaged the child from the cold clasp in 
 which dying love had bound him to a heart which should 
 beat no more with mortal joy or sorrow. 
 
 Sally, after the first moment, had run screaming toward 
 the house, with all a child's forward eagerness, to be the 
 bearer of news ; but the little Mara stood, looking anxiously, 
 with a wishful earnestness of face. 
 
 " Pitty boy, pitty boy, come ! " she said often ; but 
 .he old man was so busy, he scarcely regarded her. 
 
 " Now, Cap'n Kittridge, do tell ! " said Miss Roxy, meet- 
 ing him in all haste, with a cap-border stiff in air, while 
 Dame Kittridge exclaimed, 
 
 " Now, you don't ! Well, well ! did n't I say that was a 
 ship last night ? And what a solemnizing thought it was 
 that souls might be goin' into eternity ! " 
 
 " We must have blankets and hot bottles, right away ! ' 
 said Miss Roxy, who always took the earthly view cf mat 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 59 
 
 *ers, an.1 who was, in her own person, a personified humane 
 society. " Miss Kittridge, you jist dip out your dishwater 
 into the smallest tub, and we '11 put him in. Stand away, 
 Mara ! Sally, you take her out of the way ! We '11 fetch 
 this child to, perhaps. I 've fetched 'em to, when they 'a 
 seemed to be dead as door-nails ! " 
 
 4 Cap'n Kittridge, you 're sure the woman 's dead ? " 
 
 u Laws, yes ; she had a blow right on her temple here. 
 There 's no bringing her to till the resurrection." 
 
 " Well, then, you jist go and get Cap'n Fennel to como 
 down and help you, and get the body into the house, and 
 we '11 attend to layin* it out by and by. Tell Ruey to come 
 down." 
 
 Aunt Roxy issued her orders with all the military vigor 
 and precision of a general in case of a sudden attack. It 
 was her habit. Sickness and death were her opportunities ; 
 where they were, she felt herself at home, and she addressed 
 herself to the task before her with undoubting faith. 
 
 Before many hours a pair of large, dark eyes slowly 
 emerged from under the black-fringed lids of the little 
 drowned boy, they rolled dreamily round for a moment, 
 and dropped again in heavy languor. 
 
 The little Mara had, with the quiet persistence which 
 formed a trait in her baby character, dragged stools and 
 chairs to the back of the bed, which she at last succeeded 
 in scaling, and sat opposite to where the child lay, grave and 
 still, watching with intense earnestness the process that was 
 going on. 
 
 At the moment when the eyes had opened, she stretched 
 forth her little arms, and said, eagerly, " Pitty boy, come," 
 and then, as they closed again, she dropped her hands 
 wilh a sigh of disappointment. Yet, before night, the 
 
60 HIE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 little stranger sat up in bed, and laughed with pleasure at 
 the treasures of shells and pebbles which the children spread 
 out on the bed before him. 
 
 He was a vigorous, well-made, handsome child, with brill- 
 iant eyes and teeth, but the few words that he spoke were 
 in a language unknown to most present. Captain Kittridge 
 declared it to be Spanish, and that a call which he most 
 passionately and often repeated was for his mother. But he 
 was of that happy age when sorrow can be easily effaced, 
 and the efforts of the children called forth joyous smiles. 
 When his playthings did not go to his liking, he showed 
 sparkles of a fiery, irascible spirit. 
 
 The little Mara seemed to appropriate him in feminine 
 fashion, as a chosen idol and graven image. She gave him 
 at once all her slender stock of infantine treasures, and 
 seemed to watch with an ecstatic devotion his every move- 
 ment, often repeating, as she looked delightedly around, 
 " Pitty boy, come" 
 
 She had no words to explain the strange dream of the 
 morning ; it lay in her, struggling for expression, and giving 
 her an interest in the new-comer as in something belonging 
 to herself. Whence it came, whence come multitudes 
 like it, which spring up as strange, enchanted flowers, every 
 now and then in the dull, material pathway of life, who 
 knows ? 
 
 It may be that our present faculties have among them a 
 rudimentary one, like the germs of wings in the chrysalis, 
 by which the spiritual world becomes sometimes an object 
 of perception, there may be natures in which the walls 
 of the material are so fine and translucent that the spiritua 
 is seen through them as through a glass darkly. It may be 
 too, that the love which is strongf r than death has a powe* 
 
THE PEARL OF OER'S ISLAND 61 
 
 sometimes to make itself heard and felt through the walls of 
 our mortality, when it would plead for the defenceless ones 
 it has left behind. All these things may be, who knows ? 
 
 ****** 
 
 " There," said Miss Roxy, coming out of the keeping-room 
 at sunset ; " I would n't ask to sec a better-lookin' corpse* 
 That ar woman was a sight to behold this morning. I guese 
 I shook a double handful of stones and them little shells out 
 of her hair, now she reely looks beautiful. Captain Kit- 
 tridge has made a coffin out o' some cedar-boards he hap 
 pened to have, and I lined it with bleached cotton, anO 
 stuffed the pillow nice and full, and when we come to get 
 her in, she reely will look lovely." 
 
 " I s'pose, Mis' Kittridge, you '11 have the funeral to- 
 morrow, it 's Sunday." 
 
 " Why, yes, Aunt Roxy, I think everybody must want 
 to improve such a dispensation. Have you took little Mara 
 in to look at the corpse ? " 
 
 "Well, no," said Miss Roxy; "Mis' PennePs gettin' 
 ready to take her home." 
 
 " I think it 's an opportunity we ought to improve," said 
 Mrs. Kittridge, " to learn children what death is. I think 
 we can't begin to solemnize their minds too young." 
 
 At this moment Sally and the little Mara entered the 
 mom. 
 
 " Come here, children," said Mrs. Kittridge, taking a hand 
 of either one, and leading them to the closed door of the 
 keeping-room ; " I 've got somethin' to show you." 
 
 The room looked ghostly and dim, the rays of light fell 
 through the closed shutter on an object mysteriously muffled 
 in a white sheet. 
 
 Sally's bright face expressed only the vague curiosity of a 
 
62 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 child to see something new ; but the little Mara resisted and 
 hung back with all her force, so that Mrs. Kittridge waa 
 obliged to take her up and hold her. 
 
 She folded back the sheet from the chill and wintry form 
 which lay so icily, lonely, and cold. Sally walked around 
 it, and gratified her curiosity by seeing it from every point 
 of view, and laying her warm, busy hand on the lifeless and 
 cold one ; but Mara clung to Mrs. Kittridge, with eyes that 
 expressed a distressed astonishment. The good woman 
 fttooped over and placed the child's little hand for a mo- 
 ment on the icy forehead. The little one gave a piercing 
 scream, and struggled to get away ; and as soon as she was 
 put down, she ran and hid her face in Aunt Roxy's dress, 
 sobbing bitterly. 
 
 " That child '11 grow up to follow vanity," said Mrs. Kit- 
 tridge ; " her little head is full of dress now, and she hates 
 anything serious, it 's easy to see that." 
 
 The little Mara had no words to tell what a strange, dis- 
 tressful chill had passed up her arm and through her brain, 
 as she felt that icy cold of death, that cold so different 
 from all others. It was an impression of fear and pain that 
 lasted weeks and months, so that she would start out of sleep 
 and cry with a terror which she had not yet a sufficiency of 
 language to describe. 
 
 " You seem to forget, Mis' Kittridge, that this 'ere child 
 a'n't rugged like our Sally," said Aunt Roxy, as she raised 
 the little Mara in her arms. " She was a seven-months' 
 baby, and hard to raise at all, and a shivery, scary liltle 
 creature." 
 
 " Well, then, she ought to be hardened," said Dame Kit- 
 tridge. " But Mary Fennel never had no sort of idea of 
 bringin' up children, 't was jist so with Naomi, the gir 1 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 63 
 
 never had no sort o' resolution, and she just died for want o* 
 resolution, that 's what came of it. I tell ye, children 's 
 got to learn to take the world as it is; and 'ta'n't no use 
 bringin' on 'em up too tender. Teach 'em to begin as 
 they 've got to go on, that 's my maxim." 
 
 " Mis' Kittridge," said Aunt Roxy, " there 's reason in all 
 things, and there 's difference in children. ' What 's one's 
 meat 's another's pison.' You could n't fetch up Mis' Fen- 
 nel's children, and she could n't fetch up yourn, so let 'a 
 say no more 'bout it." 
 
 " I 'm always a-tellin* my wife that ar," said Captain Kit- 
 tridge ; " she 's always wantin' to make everybody over after 
 her pattern." 
 
 " Cap'n Kittridge, I don't think you need to speak," 
 resumed his wife. "When such a loud providence is 
 a-knockin' at your door, I think you 'd better be a-searchin* 
 your own heart, here it is the eleventh hour, and you 
 ha* n't come into the Lord's vineyard yet." 
 
 " Oh ! come, come, Mis' Kittridge, don't twit a feller 
 afore folks," said the Captain. " I 'm goin' over to Harps- 
 well Neck this blessed minute after the minister to 'tend tha 
 funeral, so we '11 let him preach." 
 
84 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LIFE on any shore is a dull affair, ever degenerating 
 into commonplace ; and this may account for the eagerness 
 with which even a great calamity is sometimes accepted in a 
 neighborhood, as affording wherewithal to stir the deeper 
 feelings of our nature. 
 
 Thus, though Mrs. Kittridge was by no means a hard- 
 hearted woman, and would not for the world have had a 
 ship wrecked on her particular account, yet since a ship had 
 been wrecked and a body floated ashore at her very door, 
 as it were, it afforded her no inconsiderable satisfaction to 
 dwell on the details and to arrange for the funeral. 
 
 It was something to talk about and to think of, and likely 
 to furnish subject-matter for talk for years to come when 
 she should go out to tea with any of her acquaintances who 
 lived at Middle Bay, or Maquoit, or Harpswell Neck. For 
 although in those days, the number of light-houses being 
 much smaller than it is now, it was no uncommon thing 
 for ships to be driven on shore in storms, yet this incident 
 had undeniably more that was stirring and romantic in it 
 than any within the memory of any tea-table gossip in the 
 vicinity. Mrs. Kittridge, therefore, looked forward to the 
 funeral services on Sunday afternoon as to a species of 
 solemn fete, which imparted a sort of consequence to hei 
 dwelling and herself. Notice of it was to be given out in 
 * meeting " after service, and she might expect both keep 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 6$ 
 
 Ing-room and kitchen to be full. Mrs. Pennel had offered 
 to do her share of Christian and neighborly kindness, in 
 taking home to her own dwelling the little boy. In fact, it 
 became necessary to do so in order to appease the feelings 
 of the little Mara, who clung to the new acquisition with 
 most devoted fondness, and wept bitterly when he was sep 
 arated from her even for a few moments. Therefore, in the 
 afternoon of the day when the body was found, Mrs. Pennel, 
 who had come down to assist, went back in company with 
 Aunt Ruey and the two children. 
 
 The September evening set in brisk and chill, and the 
 cheerful fire that snapped and roared up the ample chimney 
 of Captain Kittridge's kitchen was a pleasing feature. The 
 days of our story were before the advent of those sullen 
 gnomes, the " air-tights," or even those more sociable and 
 cheery domestic genii, the cooking-stoves. They were the 
 days of the genial open kitchen-fire, with the crane, the 
 pot-hooks, and trammels, where hissed and boiled the 
 social tea-kettle, where steamed the huge dinner-pot, in 
 whose ample depths beets, carrots, potatoes, and turnips 
 boiled in jolly sociability with the pork or corned beef 
 which they were destined to flank at the coming meal. 
 
 On the present evening, Miss Roxy sat bolt upright, as 
 was her wont, in one corner of the fireplace, with her specta- 
 cles on her nose, and an unwonted show of candles on the 
 little stand beside her, having resumed the task of the silk 
 dress which had been for a season interrupted. Mrs. Kit- 
 tridge, with her spectacles also mounted, was carefully and 
 warily " running-up breadths," stopping every few minutes 
 to examine her work, and to inquire submissively of Miss 
 Roxy if " it will do ? " 
 
 Captain Kittridge sat in the other corner busily W 
 
61* THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 on a little boat which he was shaping to please Sally, who sat 
 on a low stool by his side with her knitting, evidently more 
 intent on what her father ^s producing than on the evening 
 task of " ten bouts," which her mother exacted before she 
 could freely give her mind to anything on her own account. 
 As Sally was rigorously sent to bed exactly at eight o'clock, 
 it became her to be diligent if she wished to do anything foi 
 her own amusement before that hour. 
 
 And in the next room, cold and still, was lying that faded 
 image of youth and beauty which the sea had so strangely 
 given up. ^Without a name, without a history, without a 
 single accompaniment from which her past could even be 
 surmised, there she lay, sealed in eternal silence. 
 
 " It 's strange," said Captain Kittridge, as he whittled 
 away, " it 's very strange we don't find anything more of 
 that ar ship. I 've been all up and down the beach a-lookin* 
 There was a spar and some broken bits of boards and tim- 
 bers come ashore down on the beach, but nothin' to speak of." 
 
 "It won't be known till the sea gives up its dead," said 
 Miss Roxy, shaking her head solemnly, " and there '11 be a 
 great givin' up then, I 'm a-thinkin'." 
 
 " Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Kittridge, with an emphatic nod. 
 
 " Father," said Sally, " how many, many things there 
 must be at the bottom of the sea, so many ships are 
 sunk with all their fine things on board. Why don't people 
 contrive some way to go down and get them ? " 
 
 " They do, child," said Captain Kittridge ; " they have 
 diving-bells, and men go down in 'em with caps over their 
 faces, and long tubes to get the air through, and they walk 
 nbout on the bottom of the ocean." 
 
 " Did you ever go down in one, father ? " 
 
 a Why, yes, child, to be sure ; and strange enough it waa 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 67 
 
 to be sure. There you could see great big sea critters, with 
 ever so many eyes and long arms, swimming right up to 
 catch you, and all you could do would be to muddy the 
 water on the bottom, so they could n't see you." 
 
 " I never heard of that, Cap'n Kittridge," said his wife, 
 drawing herself up with a reproving coolness. 
 
 " Wai', Mis' Kittridge, you ha' n't heard of everything 
 that ever happened," said the Captain, imperturbablj, 
 "though you do know a sight." 
 
 " And how does the bottom of the ocean look, father ? " 
 said Sally. 
 
 " Laws, child, why trees and bushes grow there, just aa 
 they do on land ; and great plants, blue and purple and 
 green and yellow, and lots of great pearls lie round. I *ve 
 seen 'em big as chippin'-birds* eggs." 
 
 " Cap'n Kittridge ! " said his wife. 
 
 " I have, and big as robins' eggs, too, but them was off 
 the coast of Ceylon and Malabar, and way round the Equa- 
 tor," said the Captain, prudently resolved to throw his ro- 
 mance to a sufficient distance. 
 
 " It 's a pity you did n't get a few of them pearls," said 
 his wife, with an indignant appearance of scorn. 
 
 " I did get lots on 'em, and traded 'em off to the Nabobs 
 in the interior for Cashmere shawls and India silks and 
 sich," said the Captain, composedly; "and brought 'em 
 home and sold 'em at a good figure, too." 
 
 "Oh, father!" said Sally, earnestly, "I wish you had 
 saved just one or two for us." 
 
 "Laws, child, I wish now I had," said the Captain, good- 
 naturedly. " Why, when I was in India, I went up to 
 Lucknow, and Benares, and round, and saw all the Nabobs 
 and Biggums, why, they don't make no more of gold and 
 
68 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 silver and precious stones than we do of the shells we find 
 on the beach. Why, I 've seen one of them fellers with a 
 diamond in his turban as big as my fist." 
 
 " Cap'n Kittridge, what are you telling ? " said his wife 
 once more. 
 
 " Fact, as big as my fist," said the Captain, obdurately ; 
 " and all the clothes he wore was jist a stiff crust of pearls 
 and precious stones. I tell you, he looked like something ia 
 the Revelations, a real New Jerusalem look he had." 
 
 "/call that ar talk wicked, Cap'n Kittridge, usin' Scrip- 
 lur* that ar way," said his wife. 
 
 " Why, don't it tell about all sorts of gold and precious 
 stones in the Revelations ? " said the Captain ; " that 's all I 
 meant. Them ar countries off in Asia a'n't like our 'n, 
 stands to reason they should n't be ; them 's Scripture coun- 
 tries, and everything is different there." 
 
 " Father, did n't you ever get any of those splendid 
 things?" said Sally. 
 
 " Laws, yes, child. Why, I had a great green ring, an 
 emerald, that one of the princes giv' me, and ever so many 
 pearls and diamonds. I used to go with 'em rattlin' loose in 
 my vest pocket. I was young and gay in them days, and 
 thought of bringin' of 'em home for the gals, but somehow I 
 always got opportunities for swappin' of 'em off for goods and 
 sich. That ar shawl your mother keeps in her camfire chist 
 was what I got for one on 'em." 
 
 " Well, well," said Mrs. Kittridge, " there 's never any 
 catchin 1 you, 'cause you 've been where we have n't." 
 
 " You 've caught me once, and that ought 'r do," said tha 
 Captain, with unruffled good-nature. " I tell yoa, Sally, your 
 mother was the handsomest gal in Harpswell in them days." 
 
 "I should think you was too old for such nonsense 
 
THE PEARL OF GRITS ISLAND. 69 
 
 Cap'n," said Mrs. Kittridge, with a toss of her head, and 
 a voice that sounded far less inexorable than her former 
 admonition. 
 
 In fact, though the old Captain was as unmanageable un- 
 der his wife's fireside regime as any brisk old cricket that 
 skipped and sang around the hearth, and though he hopped 
 over all moral boundaries with a cheerful alertness of con- 
 science that was quite discouraging, still there was no resist- 
 big ihe spell of his inexhaustible good-nature. 
 
 By this time he had finished the little boat, and to Sally's 
 great delight, began sailing it for her in a pail of water. 
 
 " I wonder," said Mrs. Kittridge, " what 's to be done 
 with that ar child. I suppose the selectmen will take 
 care on't; it'll be brought up by the town." 
 
 " I should n't wonder," said Miss Roxy, " if Cap'n Fennel 
 should adopt it." 
 
 "You don't think so," said Mrs. Kittridge. " T would 
 be taking a great care and expense on their hands at their 
 time of life." 
 
 " I would n't want no better fun than to bring up that 
 little shaver," said Captain Kittridge ; " he 's a bright un, I 
 promise you." 
 
 u You, Cap'n Kittridge ! I wonder you can talk so," said 
 his wife. " It 's an awful responsibility, and I wonder you 
 don't think whether or no you 're fit for it." 
 
 " Why, down here on the shore, I 'd as lives undertake a 
 boy as a Newfoundland pup," said the Captain. " Plenty in 
 the sea to eat, drink, and wear. That ar young un may be 
 Ihe staff of their old age yet." 
 
 u You see," said Miss Roxy, " I think they '11 adopt it to 
 be company for little Mara; they'r bound up in her, and 
 the little thing pines bein' alone." 
 
TO THE FEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Well, they make a real graven image of that ar child," 
 said Mrs. Kittridge, " and fairly bow down to her and wor- 
 ship her." 
 
 " Well, it 's natural," said Miss Roxy. " Besides, the 
 little thing is cunnin' ; she 's about the cunnin'est little 
 crittur that I ever saw, and has such enticin' ways." 
 
 The fact was, as the reader may perceive, that Miss Roxy 
 had been thawed into an unusual attachment for the little 
 Mara, and this affection was beginning to spread a warming 
 element through her whole being. It was as if a rough 
 granite rock had suddenly awakened to a passionate con- 
 sciousness of the beauty of some fluttering white anemone 
 that nestled in its cleft, and felt warm thrills running through 
 all its veins at every tender motion and shadow. A word 
 spoken against the little one seemed to rouse her combative- 
 ness. Nor did Dame Kittridge bear the child the slightest 
 ill-will, but she was one of those naturally care-taking peo- 
 ple whom Providence Leems to design to perform the picket 
 duties for the rest of society, and who, therefore, challenge 
 everybody and everything to stand and give an account of 
 themselves. 
 
 Miss Roxy herself belonged to this class, but sometimes 
 found herself so stoutly overhauled by the guns of Mrs. 
 Kittridge's battery, that she could only stand modestly on 
 the defensive. 
 
 One of Mrs. Kittridge's favorite hobbies was education, 
 or, as she phrased it, the " fetchin' up " of children, which 
 she held should be performed to the letter of the old stiff 
 rule. In this manner she had already trained up six sons, 
 who were all following their fortunes upon the seas, and, 
 on this account, she had no small conceit of her abilities 
 and when she thought she discerned a lamb being left to 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 71 
 
 frisk heedlessly out of bounds, her zeal was stirred to bring 
 it under proper sheepfold regulations. 
 
 " Come, Sally, it 's eight o'clock," said the good woman. 
 
 Sally's dark brows lowered over her large, black eyes, 
 and she gave an appealing look to her father. 
 
 " Law, mother, let the child sit up a quarter of an hour 
 later, jist for once." 
 
 " Cap'n Kittridge, if I was to hear to you, there 'd never be 
 Do rule in this house. Sally, you go 'long this minute, and 
 be sure you put your knittin' away in its place." 
 
 The Captain gave a humorous nod of submissive good- 
 nature to his daughter as she went out. In fact, putting 
 Sally to bed was taking away his plaything, and leaving 
 him nothing to do but study faces in the coals, or watch 
 the fleeting sparks which chased each other in flocks up 
 the sooty back of the chimney. 
 
 It was Saturday night, and the morrow was Sunday, 
 never a very pleasant prospect to the poor Captain, who, 
 having, unfortunately, no spiritual tastes, found it very 
 difficult to get through the day in compliance with his 
 wife's views of propriety, for he, alas ! soared no higher 
 in his aims. 
 
 "I b'lieve, on the hull, Polly, I '11 go to bed, too," said he, 
 suddenly starting up. 
 
 " Well, father, your clean shirt is in the right -hand corner 
 of the upper drawer, and your Sunday clothes on the back 
 of the chair by the bed." 
 
 The fact was that the Captain promised himself Uie 
 pleasure of a long conversation with Sally, who nestled ill 
 the trundle-bed under the paternal couch, to whom, he could 
 "elate long, many-colored yarns, without the danger of inter- 
 Mption from her mother's sharp, truth-seeking voice. 
 
T2 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 A moralist might, perhaps, be puzzled exactly what ac- 
 count to make of the Captain's disposition to romancing 
 and embroidery. In all real, matter-of-fact transactions, 
 as between man and man, his word was as good as 
 another's, and he was held to be honest and just in his 
 dealings. It was only when he mounted the stilts of foreign 
 travel that his paces became so enormous. Perhaps, after 
 all, a rude poetic and artistic faculty possessed the man. 
 He might have been a humbler phase of the "mute, in- 
 glorious Milton." Perhaps his narrations required the priv- 
 ileges and allowances due to the inventive arts generally. 
 Certain it was that, in common with other artists, he re- 
 quired an atmosphere of sympathy and confidence in which 
 to develop himself fully ; and, when left alone with children, 
 his mind ran such riot, that the bounds between the real and 
 unreal became foggier than the banks of Newfoundland. 
 
 The two women sat up, and the night wore on apace, 
 while they kept together that customary vigil which it was 
 thought necessary to hold over the lifeless casket from which 
 an immortal jewel had recently been withdrawn. 
 
 " I re'lly did hope," said Mrs. Kittridge, mournfully, " that 
 this 'ere solemn Providence would have been sent home to 
 the Cap'n's mind ; but he seems jist as light and triflin' as 
 ever." 
 
 " There don't nobody see these 'ere things unless they 'a 
 effectually called," said Miss Roxy, " and the Cap'n's time 
 *'n't come." 
 
 " It 's gettin' to be t'ward the eleventh hour," said Mrs 
 Kittridge, " as I was a-tellin' him this afternoon." 
 
 Well," said Miss Roxy, you know 
 
 'While the lamp holds out to burn, 
 The vilest sinner may return.' " 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. ?3 
 
 tt Yes, I know that," said Mrs. Kittridge, rising and taking 
 flp the candle. " Don't you think, Aunt Roxy, we may as 
 well give a look in there at the corpse?" 
 
 It was past midnight as they went together into the 
 keeping-room. All was so still that the clash of the rising 
 tide and the ticking of the clock assumed that solemn and 
 mournful distinctness which even tones less impressive take 
 Oil in the night-watches. 
 
 Miss Roxy went mechanically through with certain ar- 
 rangements of the white drapery around the cold sleeper, 
 and uncovering the face and bust for a moment, looked 
 critically at the still unconscious countenance. 
 
 " Not one thing to let us know who 'or what she is," she 
 said ; " that boy, if he lives, would give a good deal to know 
 some day." 
 
 " What is it one's duty to do about this bracelet ? " said 
 Mrs. Kittridge, taking from a drawer the article in ques- 
 tion, which had been found on the beach in the morning. 
 
 " Well, I s'pose it belongs to the child, whatever it 's 
 worth," said Miss Roxy. 
 
 " Then if the Fennels conclude to take him, I may as 
 well give it to them," said Mrs. Kittridge, laying it back in 
 the drawer. 
 
 Miss Roxy folded the cloth back over the face, and the 
 two went out into the kitchen. The fire had sunk low 
 the crickets were chirruping gleefully. Mrs. Kittridge 
 added more wood, and put on the tea-kettle that their 
 watching might be refreshed by the aid of its talkative 
 Bnd inspiring beverage. The two solemn, hard-visaged 
 tfomcn drew up to each other by the fire, and insensibly 
 Aeir very voices assumed a tone of drowsy and confidential 
 mystery. 
 
 4 
 
T4 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " If this 'ere poor woman was hopefully pious, and could 
 gee what was goin' on here," said Mrs. Kittridge, " it would 
 seem to be a comfort to her that her child has fallen into 
 such good hands. It seems a' most a pity she couldn't 
 know it." 
 
 " How do you know she don't ? " said Miss Roxy, bruskly, 
 "Why, you know the hymn," said Mrs. Kittridge, quoting 
 those somewhat saddusaical lines from the popular p*aln> 
 book: 
 
 " ' The living know that they must die, 
 But all the dead forgotten lie 
 Their memory and their senses gone, 
 Alike unknowing and unknoton.' " 
 
 " Well, I don't know 'bout that," said Miss Roxy, flavor- 
 ing her cup of tea ; " hymn-book a'n't Scriptur', and I 'm 
 pretty sure that ar aVt true always ; " and she nodded her 
 head as if she could say more if she chose. 
 
 Now Miss Roxy's reputation of vast experience in all the 
 facts relating to those last fateful hours which are the only 
 certain event in every human existence, caused her to be 
 regarded as a sort of Delphic oracle in such matters, and 
 therefore Mrs. Kittridge, not without a share of the latent 
 superstition to which each human heart must confess at some 
 hours, drew confidentially near to Miss Roxy, and asked if 
 she had anything particular on her mind. 
 
 "Well, Mis' Kittridge," said Miss Roxy, "I a'n't one of 
 the sort as likes to make a talk of what I Ve seen, but meb- 
 be if I was, I 've seen some things as remarkable as any 
 body. I tell you Mis' Kittridge, folks don't tend the sick 
 and dyin' bed year in and out, at all hours, day and night 
 End not see some remarkable things ; that 's my opinion." 
 
 " Well, Miss Roxy, did you ever see a sperit ? " 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 75 
 
 * I wo/i't say as I have, and I won't say as I hav' n't," 
 laid Miss Roxy; "only as I have seen some remarkable 
 things." There was a pause, in which Mrs. Kittridge stirred 
 her tea, looking intensely curious, while the old kitchen- 
 clock seemed to tick with one of those fits of loud insist- 
 acce which seem to take clocks at times when all is still, as 
 if they had something that they were getting ready to say 
 pretty soon, if nobody else spoke. 
 
 But Miss Roxy evidently had something to say, and so 
 she began : 
 
 " Mis' Kittridge, this 'ere 's a very particular subject to 
 be talkin' of. I 've had opportunities to observe that most 
 hav' n't, and I don't care if I jist say to you, that I 'm pretty 
 sure spirits that has left the body do come to their friends 
 sometimes." 
 
 The clock ticked with still more empressement, and Mrs. 
 Kittridge glared through the horn bows of her glasses with 
 eyes of eager curiosity. 
 
 " Now, you remember Cap'n Titcomb's wife that died fif- 
 teen years ago when her husband had gone to Archangel, 
 and you remember that he took her son John out with him 
 and of all her boys, John was the one she was particular 
 sot on." 
 
 u Yes, and John died at Archangel ; I remember that." 
 
 " Jes' so," said Miss Roxy, laying her hand on Mrs. Kit- 
 tridge's ; " he died at Archangel the very day his mother died, 
 find jist the hour, for the Cap'n had it down in his log-book." 
 
 " You don't say so ! " 
 
 " Yes I do. "Well, now," said Miss Roxy, sinking her 
 v^ice, " this 'ere was rerrarkable. Mis' Titcomb was one of 
 the fearful sort, tho' one of the best women that ever lived. 
 Oar minister used to call her * Mis' M'jchafraid ' you 
 
76 THE PEARL OF GRITS ISLAND. 
 
 know, in the < Pilgrim's Progress' but he was satisfied 
 with her evidences, and told her so ; she used to say she waa 
 'afraid of the dark valley,' and she told our minister so 
 when he went out, that ar last day he called ; and his 
 last words, as he stood with his hand on the knob of the 
 door, was ' Mis' Titcomb, the Lord will find ways to bring 
 you thro' the dark valley.' Well, she sunk away about 
 three o'clock in the morning. I remember the time, 'cause 
 the Cap'n's chronometer watch that he left with her lay on 
 the stand for her to take her drops by. I heard her kind o' 
 restless, and I went up, and I saw she was struck with death, 
 and she looked sort o' anxious and distressed. 
 
 " ' Oh, Aunt Roxy,' says she, ' it 's so dark, who will go 
 with me? 'and in a minute her whole face brightened up, 
 and says she, 'John is going with me,' and she jist gave the 
 least little sigh and never breathed no more she jist died 
 as easy as a bird. 
 
 " I told our minister of it next morning, and he asked if 
 I 'd made a note of the hour, and I told him I had, and says 
 he, ' You did right, Aunt Roxy.' " 
 
 " What did he seem to think of it ? " 
 
 " Well, he did n't seem inclined to speak freely. * Miss 
 Roxy,' says he, all natur 's in the Lord's hands, and there 's 
 no saying why he uses this or that ; them that 's strong 
 enough to go by faith, he lets 'em, but there 's no saying 
 what he won't do for the weak ones.'" 
 
 " Wa'n't the Cap'v> overcome when you told him ? " said 
 Mrs. Kittridge. 
 
 " Indeed he was ; he was jist as white as a sheet." 
 
 Miss Roxy now proceeded to pour out another cup of tea, 
 and having mixed and flavored it, she looked in a weird and 
 iibylline manner across it, and inquired, 
 
IflE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 77 
 
 " Mis' Kittridge, do you remember that ar Mr. Wadkins 
 that come to Brunswick twenty years ago, in President 
 Averill's days ? " 
 
 " Yes, I remember the pale, thin, long-nosed gentleman 
 that used to sit in President Averill's pew at church. No- 
 body knew who he was or where he came from. The col- 
 lege students used to call him Thaddeus of Warsaw. No- 
 body knew who he was but the President, 'cause he could 
 speak all the foreign tongues one about as well as an- 
 other ; but the President he knew his story, and said he w as 
 a good man, and he used to stay to the sacrament regular, I 
 remember." 
 
 " Yes," said Miss Roxy, " he used to live in a room all 
 alone, and keep himself. Folks said he was quite a gentle- 
 man, too, and fond of reading." 
 
 " I heard Cap'n Atkins tell," said Mrs. Kittridge, " how 
 they came to take him up on the shores of Holland. You 
 see, when he was somewhere in a port in Denmark, some 
 men come to him and offered him a pretty good sum of 
 money if he 'd be at such a place on the coast of Holland 
 on such a day, and take whoever should come. So the 
 Cap'n he went, and sure enough on that day there come a 
 troop of men on horseback down to the beach with this man, 
 and they all bid him good-by, and seemed to make much of 
 him, but he never told 'em nothin' on board ship, only he 
 seemed kind o' sad and pmin'." 
 
 " Well," said Miss Roxy ; " Ruey and I we took care o* 
 Jiat man in his last sickness, and we watched with him the 
 night he died, and there was something quite remarkable." 
 
 " Do tell now," said Mrs. Kittridge. 
 
 "Well, you see/' said Miss Roxy, "he'd been low and 
 poorly all day, kind o' tossin* and restless, and a little light- 
 
78 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 Headed, and the Doctor said he thought he wouldn't last till 
 morning, and so Ruey and I we set up with him, and be- 
 tween twelve and one Ruey said she thought she 'd jist lop 
 down a few minutes on the old sofa at the foot of the bed, 
 and I made me a cup of tea like as I 'm a-doin' now, and 
 get with my back to him." 
 
 "Well?" said Mrs. Kittridge, eagerly. 
 
 "Well, you see he kept a-tossin' and throwin* off lha 
 clothes, and I kept a-gettin' up to straighten 'em ; and once 
 he threw out his arms, and something bright fell out on to 
 the pillow, and I went and looked, and it was a likeness that 
 he wore by a ribbon round his neck. It was a woman a 
 real handsome one and she had on a low-necked black 
 dress, of the cut they used to call Marie Louise, and she had 
 a string of pearls round her neck, and her hair curled with 
 pearls in it, and very wide blue eyes. Well, you see, I 
 didn't look but a minute before he seemed to wake up, and 
 he caught at it and hid it in his clothes. Well, I went and 
 sat down, and I grew kind o' sleepy over the fire ; but pretty 
 soon I heard him speak out very clear, and kind o' sur- 
 prised, in a tongue 1 did n't understand, and I looked 
 round." 
 
 Miss Roxy here made a pause, and put another lump of 
 sugar into her tea. 
 
 " Well ? " said Mrs. Kittridge, ready to burst with curi- 
 osity. 
 
 "Well, now, I don't like to tell about these "ere things, 
 and you must n't never speak about it ; but as sure as you 
 live, Polly Kittridge, I see that ar very woman standin' at 
 the back of the bed, right in the partin' of the curtains, jisl 
 as she looked in the pictur' blue eyes and curly hair an<J 
 pearls on her neck, and black dress." 
 
TIIE 1'EARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 79 
 
 * What did you do ? " said Mrs. Kittridge. 
 
 " Do ? Why, I jist held my breath and looked, and in a 
 minute it kind o' faded away, and I got up and went to the 
 bed, but the man was gone. He lay there with the pleasant- 
 est smile on his face that ever you see ; and I woke up 
 Ruey, and told her about it." 
 
 Mrs. Kittridge drew a long breath. " What do you think 
 it was ? " 
 
 " Well," said Miss Roxy, " I know what I think, but I 
 don t think best to tell. I told Doctor Meritts, and he said 
 there were more things in heaven and earth than folks knew 
 
 about and so I think." 
 
 ******* 
 
 Meanwhile, on this same evening, the little Mara frisked 
 like a household fairy round the hearth of Zephaniah 
 Pennel. 
 
 The boy was a strong-limbed, merry-hearted little urchin, 
 and did full justice to the abundant hospitalities of Mrs. 
 Fennel's tea-table; and after supper little Mara employed 
 herself in bringing apronful after apronful of her choicest 
 treasures, and laying them down at his feet. His great 
 black eyes flashed with pleasure, and he gambolled about 
 the hearth with his new playmate in perfect forgetfulness, 
 Apparently, of all the past night of fear and anguish. 
 
 When the great family Bible was brought out for prayers, 
 and little Mara composed herself on a low stool by her 
 grandmother's side, he, however, did not conduct himself 
 ps a babe of grace. 
 
 He resisted all Miss Ruey's efforts to make him sit down 
 beside her, and stood staring with his great, black, irreverent 
 eyes during the Bible-reading, and laughed out in the most 
 inappropriate manner when the psalm-singing began, and 
 
80 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 seemed disposed to mingle incoherent remarks of his own 
 even in the prayers. 
 
 " This is a pretty self-willed youngster," said Miss Ruey, 
 as they rose from the exercises, " and I should n't think 
 he'd been used to religious privileges." 
 
 " Perhaps not," said Zephaniah Fennel ; " but who can 
 say but what this providence is a message of the Lord to us 
 such as Pharaoh's daughter sent about Moses * Take 
 this child, and bring him up for me ' ? " 
 
 " I 'd like to take him, if I thought I was capable," said 
 Mrs. Pennel, timidly. " It seems a real providence to give 
 Mara some company the poor child pines so for want 
 of it." 
 
 " Well, then, Mary, if you say so, we will bring him up 
 with our little Mara," said Zephaniah, drawing the child 
 toward him. 
 
 u May the Lord bless him ! " he added, laying his grea! 
 brown hands on the shining black curls of the child. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 81 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SCNDA.T morning rose clear and bright on Harpswell 
 Bay. The whole sea was a waveless, blue looking-glass, 
 streaked with bands of white, and flecked with sailing cloud- 
 shadows from the skies above. 
 
 Orr's Island, with its blue-black spruces, its silver firs, 
 its golden larches, its scarlet sumachs, lay on the bosom 
 of the deep like a great many-colored gem on an enchanted 
 mirror. 
 
 A vague, dreamlike sense of rest and Sabbath stillness 
 seemed to brood in the air. The very spruce-trees seemed 
 to know that it was Sunday, and to point solemnly upward 
 with "heir dusky fingers ; and the small tide-waves that 
 chased *ach other up on the shelly beach, or broke against 
 projecting rocks, seemed to do it with a chastened decorum, 
 as if each blue-haired wave whispered to his brother, " Be 
 still be still." 
 
 Yes, Sunday it was along all the beautiful shores of 
 Maine netted in green and azure by its thousand islands, 
 all glorious with their majestic pines, all musical and silvery 
 with the caresses of the sea-waves, that loved to wander 
 and lose themselves in their numberless shelly coves and 
 tiny beaches among their cedar shadows. 
 
 Not merely as a burdensome restraint, or a weary endur- 
 ance, came the shadow of tbat Puritan Sabbath. It brought 
 with it all the sweetness that belongs tc rest, all the sacred 
 4* 
 
82 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 ness that hallows home, all the memories of patient thrift, 
 of sober order, of chastened yet intense family feeling, of 
 calmness, purity, and self-respecting dignity which distin- 
 guish the Puritan household. 
 
 It seemed a solemn pause in all the sights and sounds of 
 earth. And he whose moral nature was not yet enough 
 Developed to fill the blank with visions of heaven, was yet 
 wholesomely instructed by his weariness into the secret of 
 his own spiritual poverty. 
 
 Zephaniah Fennel, in his best Sunday clothes, with his 
 Lard visage glowing with a sort of interior tenderness, min- 
 istered this morning at his family-altar one of those thou- 
 sand priests of God's ordaining that tend the sacred fire in 
 as many families of New England. 
 
 He had risen with the morning star and been forth to 
 Meditate, and came in with his mind softened and glowing. 
 The trancelike calm of earth and sea found a solemn answer 
 with him, as he read what a poet wrote by the sea-shores of 
 the Mediterranean, ages ago : " Bless the Lord, O my 
 soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great ; thou art 
 clothed with honor and majesty. Who coverest thyself 
 with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens 
 like a curtain : who layeth the beams of his chambers in the 
 waters : who maketh the clouds his chariot : who walketh 
 upon the wings of the wind. The trees of the Lord are full 
 of sap ; ;he cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted ; 
 where the birds make their nests ; as for the stork, the fir- 
 trees are her house. O Lord, how manifold are thy works ! 
 in wisdom hast thou made them all." 
 
 Ages ago the cedars that the poet saw have rotted into 
 dust, and from their cones have risen generations of others, 
 iride-winged and grand. But the words of that poet hav 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 83 
 
 been wafted like seed to our days, and sprung up in flowers 
 of trust and faith in a thousand households. 
 
 " Well, now," said Miss Ruey, when the morning rite was 
 over, " Mis' Fennel, I s'pose you and the Cap'n will be 
 wantin' to go to the meetin', so don't you gin yourse'ves a 
 mite of trouble about the children, for I '11 stay at home with 
 'em. The little feller was starty and fretful in his sleep last 
 night, and did n't seem to be quite well." 
 
 " No wonder, poor dear," said Mrs. Fennel ; " it 's a won- 
 der children can forget as they do." 
 
 " Yes," said Miss Ruey ; " you know them lines in the 
 1 English Reader,' 
 
 4 Gay hope is theirs by fancy led, 
 Least pleasing when possessed; 
 The tear forgot as soon as shed, 
 The sunshine of the breast.' 
 
 Them lines all'ys seemed to me affectin'." 
 
 Miss Ruey's sentiment was here interrupted by a loud 
 cry from the bedroom, and something between a sneeze and 
 a howl. 
 
 " Massy, what is that ar young un up to ! " she ex- 
 claimed, rushing into the adjoining bedroom. 
 
 There stood the young Master Hopeful of our story, with 
 streaming eyes and much-bedaubed face, having just, after 
 much labor, succeeded in making Miss Ruey's snuff-box fly 
 open, which he did with such force as to send the contents 
 in a perfect cloud into eyes, nose, and mouth. 
 
 The scene of struggling and confusion that ensued cannot 
 be described. The washings, and wipings, and sobbings, 
 and exhortings, and the sympathetic sobs of the little Mara, 
 formed a small tempest for the time being that was rather 
 appalling. 
 
84 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 "Well, this 'ere's a youngster that's a-goin' to make 
 work," said Miss Ruey, when all things were tolerably 
 restored. " Seems to make himself at home first thing.*' 
 
 "Poor little dear," said Mrs. Fennel, in the excess of 
 loving-kindness, " I hope he will ; he 's welcome, I 'm 
 gure." 
 
 "Not to my snuff-box," said Miss Ruey, who had felt 
 herself attacked in a very tender point. 
 
 " He 's got the notion of lookin' into things pretty early," 
 said Captain Pennel, with an indulgent smile. 
 
 " Well, Aunt Ruey," said Mrs. Pennel, when this dis- 
 turbance was somrwhat abated, " I feel kind o' sorry to de- 
 prive you of your privileges to-day." 
 
 " Oh ! never mind me," said Miss Ruey, briskly. " I 've 
 got the big Bible, and I can sing a hymn or two by myself. 
 My voice a'n't quite what it used to be, but then I get a 
 good deal of pleasure out of it." 
 
 Aunt Ruey, it must be known, had in her youth been one 
 of the foremost leaders in the " singers' seats," and now was 
 in the habit of speaking of herself much as a retired prima 
 donna might, whose past successes were yet in the minds 
 of her generation. 
 
 After giving a look out of the window, to see that the 
 children were within sight, she opened the big Bible at the 
 story of the ten plagues of Egypt, and adjusting her horn 
 spectacles with a sort of sideway twist on her little pug nose, 
 she seemed intent on her Sunday duties. A moment after 
 she looked up and said, 
 
 " I don't know but I must send a message by you over to 
 Mis' Deacon Badger, about a worldly matter, if 't is Sun- 
 day; but I've been thinkin', Mis' Pennel, that there'll 
 ^ve to be clothes made up for this 'ere child next week, 
 
THE PEARL JF OER'S ISLAND. 85 
 
 and so perhaps Roxy and I had better stop here a day or 
 two longer, and you tell Mis' Badger that we'll come to 
 her a Wednesday, and so she '11 have time to have that new 
 press-board done, the old one used to pester me so." 
 
 " Well, I -Jl remember," said Mrs. Fennel. 
 
 "It seems a'most impossible to prevent one's thoughts 
 wanderin' Sundays," said Aunt Ruey ; "but I couldn't help 
 a-thinkin' I could get such a nice pair o' trousers out of 
 them old Sunday ones of the Cap'n's in the garret. I was 
 a-lookin' at 'em last Thursday, and thinkin' what a pity 't was 
 you had n't nobody to cut down for ; but this 'ere young un 's 
 going to be such a tearer, he '11 want somethin' real stout ; 
 but I '11 try and put it out of my mind till Monday. Mis' 
 Fennel, you '11 be sure to ask Mis' Titcomb how Harriet's 
 toothache is, and whether them drops cured her that I gin 
 her last Sunday ; and ef you '11 jist look in a minute at 
 Major Broad's, and tell 'em to use bayberry wax for his 
 blister, it 's so healin' ; and do jist ask if Sally's baby's eye- 
 tooth has come through yet." 
 
 " Well, Aunt Ruey, I '11 try to remember all," said Mrs. 
 Fennel, as she stood at the glass in her bedroom, carefully 
 adjusting the respectable black silk shawl over her shoul- 
 ders, and tying her neat bonnet-strings. 
 
 "I s'pose," said Aunt Ruey, -'that the notice of the funeral 
 '11 be gin out after sermon." 
 
 " Yes, I think so," said Mrs. Fennel. 
 
 " It 's another loud call," said Miss Ruey, " and I hope it 
 will turn the young people from their thoughts of dress and 
 vanity, there 's Mary Jane Sanborn was all took up with 
 gettin' feathers and velvet for her fall bonnet. I don't thini 
 I shall get no bonnet this year till snow comes. My Sou 
 let 's respectable enough, don't you think so ? " 
 
86 TILE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAKD. 
 
 " Certainly, Aunt Ruey, it looks very well." 
 
 " Well, I '11 have the pork and beans and bro rcn-bread 
 all hot on table agin you come back," said Miss Ruey, "and 
 then after dinner we '11 all go down to the funeral together. 
 Mis' Pennel, there 's one thing on my mind, what you 
 goin' to call this 'ere boy ? " 
 
 " Father and I 've been thinkin* that over," said Mrs. 
 Pennel. 
 
 " Would n't think of giv'n him the Cap'n's name f " said 
 Aunt Ruey. 
 
 " He must have a name of his own," said Captain Pennel. 
 " Come here, sonny," he called to the child, who was playing 
 just beside the door. 
 
 The child lowered his head, shook down his long black 
 curls, and looked through them as elfishly as a Skye terrier, 
 but showed no inclination to come. 
 
 " One thing he has n't learned, evidently," said Captain 
 Pennel, "and that is to mind." 
 
 " Here ! " he said, turning to the boy with a little of the 
 tone he had used of old on the quarter-deck, and taking his 
 small hand firmly. 
 
 The child surrendered, and let the good man lift him on 
 his knee and stroke aside the clustering curls ; the boy then 
 looked fixedly at him with his great gloomy black eyes, his 
 little firm-set mouth and bridled chin, a perfect little 
 miniature of proud manliness. 
 
 "What's your name, little boy?" 
 
 The great eyes continued looking in the same solemn 
 quiet. 
 
 " Law, he don't understand a word," said Zephaniah, put 
 ting his hand kindly on the child's head ; " our tongue is all 
 Itrange to him. Kittridge says he 's a Spanish child ; may 
 
THE PEVRL OF ORR'S ISLANT). 87 
 
 DC from the West Indies; but nobody knows, we never 
 shall know his name." 
 
 " Well, I dare say it was some Popish nonsense or other," 
 said Aunt Ruey; "and now he 's come to a land of Christian 
 privileges, we ought to give him a good Scripture name, and 
 start him well in the world." 
 
 "Let's call him Moses," said Zephaniah, "because WQ 
 drew him out of the water." 
 
 " Now, did I ever ! " said Miss Ruey ; " there 's some- 
 thing in the Bible to fit everything, a'n't there?" 
 
 "I like Moses, because I had a brother of that name," 
 said Mrs. Fennel. 
 
 The child had slid down from his protector's knee, and 
 stood looking from one to the other gravely while this dis- 
 cussion was going on. 
 
 What change of destiny was then going on for him in thia 
 simple formula of adoption, none could tell ; but, sorely, 
 never orphan stranded on a foreign shore found home with 
 hearts more true and loving. 
 
 " Well, wife, I suppose we must be goin'," said Zepha- 
 niah. 
 
 About a stone's throw from the open door, the little fish- 
 ing-craft lay courtesy ing daintily on the small tide-waves 
 that came licking up the white pebbly shore. 
 
 Mrs. Fennel seated herself in the end of the boat, and a 
 pretty placid picture she was, with her smooth, parted hair, 
 her modest, cool, drab bonnet, and her bright hazel eyes, in 
 which was the Sabbatli calm of a loving and tender heart. 
 
 Zephaniah loosed the sail, and the two children stood on 
 Ihe beach and saw them go off. A pleasant little wind car- 
 ried them away, and back on the breeze came ihe sound 
 &f Zephaniah's Sunday-morning psalm 
 
83 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Lord, in the morning thou shall hear 
 
 My voice ascending high 
 To thee will I direct my prayer, 
 
 To thee lift up mine eye; 
 Unto thy house will I resort, 
 
 To taste thy mercies there; 
 I will frequent thy holy court, 
 
 And worship in thy fear." 
 
 The surface of the glassy bay was dotted here and thers 
 with the white sails of other little craft bound for the same 
 point and for the same purpose. It was as pleasant a sight 
 as one might wish to see. 
 
 Left in charge of the house, Miss Ruey drew a long 
 breath, took a consoling pinch of snuff, sang " Bridge- 
 water" in an uncommonly high key, and then began read- 
 ing in the prophecies. 
 
 With her good head full of the " daughter of Zion " and 
 the house of Israel and Judah, she was recalled to terrestrial 
 things by loud screams from the barn, accompanied by a 
 general flutter and cackling among the hens. 
 
 Away plodded the good soul, and opening the barn-door 
 saw the little boy perched on the top of the hay-mow, 
 screaming and shrieking, his face the picture of dismay, 
 while poor little Mara's cries came in a more muffled manner 
 from some unexplored lower region. In fact, she was found 
 to have slipped through a hole in the hay-mow into the 
 nest of a very domestic sitting-hen, whose clamors at the 
 invasion of her family privacy added no little to the general 
 confusion. 
 
 The little princess, whose nicety as to her dress and sen- 
 sitiveness as to anything unpleasant about her pretty person 
 we have seen, was lifted up streaming with tears and broken 
 eggs, but otherwise not seriously injured, having fallen on 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 89 
 
 the very substantial substratum of hay which Dame Pou et 
 had selected as the foundation of her domestic hopes. 
 
 " Well, now, did I ever ! " said Miss Ruey, when she had 
 ascertained that no bones were broken ; " if that ar young 
 un is n't a limb ! I declare for 't I pity Mis' Fennel, 
 she don't know what she's undertook. How upon 'arth 
 the critter managed to get Mara on to the hay, I 'in sure I 
 can't tell, that ar little thing never got into no such 
 scrapes before." 
 
 Far from seeming impressed with any wholesome remorse 
 of conscience, the little culprit frowned fierce defiance at 
 Miss Ruey, when, after having repaired the damages of 
 little Mara's toilet, she essayed the good old plan of shut- 
 ting him into the closet. He fought and struggled so 
 fiercely that Aunt Ruey's carroty frisette came off in the 
 skirmish, and her head-gear, always rather original, assumed 
 an aspect verging on the supernatural. 
 
 Miss Ruey thought of Philistines and Moabites, and all 
 the other terrible people she had been reading about that 
 morning, and came as near getting into a passion with the 
 little elf as so good-humored and Christian an old body 
 could possibly do. Human virtue is frail, and every one 
 has some vulnerable point. The old Roman senator could 
 not control himself when his beard was invaded, and the 
 like sensitiveness resides in an old woman's cap ; and when 
 young master irreverently clawed off her Sunday best, Aunt 
 Ruey, in her confusion of mind, administered a sound cuff 
 on either ear. 
 
 Little Mara, who had screamed loudly through the whole 
 acene, now conceiving that her precious new-found treasure 
 was endangered, flew at poor Miss Ruey with both little 
 hands ; and throwing her arms round her " boy," as she 
 
90 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAXD. 
 
 constantly called him, she drew him backward, and looked 
 defiance at the common enemy. Miss Ruey was dumb- 
 struck. 
 
 " I declare for 't, I b'lieve he 's bewitched her," she said, 
 stupefied, having never seen anything like the martial ex- 
 pression which now gleamed from those soft brown eyesi 
 " Why, Mara dear, putty little Mara." 
 
 But Mara was busy wiping away the angry tears ilia* 
 gtood on the hot, glowing cheeks of the boy, and offering hei 
 little rose-bud of a mouth to kiss him, as she stood on tiptoe. 
 
 " Poor boy, no kie, Mara's boy," she said, " Mara 
 love boy ; " and then giving an angry glance at Aunt Ruey, 
 who sat much disheartened and confused, she struck out her 
 little pearly hand, and cried, " Go way, go way, naughty! " 
 
 The child jabbered unintelligibly and earnestly to Mara, 
 and she seemed to have the air of being perfectly satisfied 
 with his view of the case, and both regarded Miss Ruey 
 with frowning looks. 
 
 Under these peculiar circumstances, the good soul began 
 to bethink her of some mode of compromise, and going to 
 the closet took out a couple of slices of cake, which she 
 offered to the little rebels with pacificatory words. 
 
 Mara was appeased at once, and ran to Aunt Ruey ; but 
 the boy struck the cake out of her hand, and looked at her 
 with steady defiance. The little one picked it up, and with 
 much chippering and many little feminine manoeuvres, at 
 last succeeded in making him taste it, after which appetite 
 got the better of his valorous resolutions, he ate and was 
 comforted ; and after a little time, the three were on the 
 best possible footing. And Miss Ruey having smoothed her 
 hair, and arranged her frisetie and cap, began to reflecl 
 upon herself as the cause of the whole disturbance. If 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 9l 
 
 she had not let them run while she indulged in reading 
 and singing, this would not have happened. So the toil- 
 ful good soul kept them at her knee for the next hour 
 or two, while they looked through all the pictures in the 
 old family Bible. 
 
 ******* 
 
 The evening of that day witnessed a crowded funeral in 
 the small rooms of Captain Kittridge. Mrs. Kittridge was 
 in her glory. Solemn and lugubrious to the last degree, 
 she supplied in her own proper person the want of the 
 whole corps of mourners, who generally attract sympathy 
 on such occasions. 
 
 But what drew artless pity from all was the unconscious 
 orphan, who came in, led by Mrs. Fennel by the one hand, 
 and with the little Mara by the other. 
 
 The simple rite of baptism administered to tha wondering 
 little creature so strongly recalled that other scene three 
 years before, that Mrs. Fennel hid her face in her handker- 
 chief, and Zephaniah's firm hand shook a little as he took 
 the boy to offer him to the rite. The child received the 
 ceremony with a look of grave surprise, put up his hand 
 quickly and wiped the holy drops from his brow, as if they 
 annoyed him ; and shrinking back, seized hold of the gown 
 of Mrs. Fennel. Hi-; great beauty, and, still more, the air 
 of haughty, defiant firmness with which he regarded the 
 company, drew all eyes, and many were the whispered 
 comments. 
 
 u Fennel '11 have his hands full with that ar chap," said 
 Captain Kittridge to Miss Roxy. 
 
 Mrs. Kittridge darted an admonitory glance at her hus- 
 band, to remind him that she was looking at him, and im 
 Vuediately he collapsed into solemnity. 
 
92 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 The evening sunbeams slanted over the blackbeny bushel 
 rind mullein stalks of the graveyard, when the lonely voy- 
 ager was lowered to the rest from which she should not rise 
 till the heavens be no more. As the purple sea at that 
 hour retained no trace of the ships that had furrowed its 
 waves, so of this mortal traveller no trace remained, not 
 even in that infant soul that was to her so passionately 
 dear. 
 
THIS PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MBS. KITTRZDGE'S advantages and immunities resulting 
 from the shipwreck were not yet at an end. Not only had 
 one of the most " solemn providences " known within the 
 memory of the neighborhood fallen out at her door, not 
 only had the most interesting funeral that had occurred for 
 three or four years taken place in her parlor, but she was 
 still further to be distinguished in having the minister to tea 
 ufter the performances were all over. To this end she had 
 risen early, and taken down her best china tea-cups, which 
 had been marked with her and her husband's joint initials 
 in Canton, and which only came forth on high and solemn 
 occasions. In view of this probable distinction, on Satur- 
 day, immediately after the discovery of the calamity, Mrs. 
 Kittridge had found time to rush to her kitchen, and make 
 up a loaf of pound-cake and some doughnuts, that the great 
 occasion which she foresaw might not find her below her 
 reputation as a forehanded housewife. 
 
 It was a fine golden hour when the minister and funeral 
 train turned away from the grave. Unlike other funerals, 
 tLere was no draught on the sympathies in favor of mourners 
 no wife, or husband, or parent, left a heart in that grave ; 
 and so when the rites were all over, they turned with the 
 more cheerfulness back into life, from the contrast of its 
 freshness with those shadows into which, for the hour, thej 
 bad been gazing. 
 
>4 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 The Rev. Theophilus Sewell was one of the few ministers 
 who preserved the costume of a former generation, with 
 something of that imposing dignity with which, in earlier 
 times, the habits of the clergy were invested. 
 
 He was tall and majestic in stature, and carried to advan- 
 tage the powdered wig and three-cornered hat, the broad* 
 skirted coat, knee-breeches, high shoes, and plated buckles 
 of the ancient costume. There was just a sufficient degree 
 of the formality of olden times to give a certain quaintnesa 
 to all he said and did. He was a man of a considerable de- 
 gree of talent, force, and originality, and in fact had been 
 held in his day to be one of the most promising graduates 
 of Harvard University. 
 
 But, being a good man, he had proposed to himself no 
 higher ambition than to succeed to the pulpit of his father 
 in Harpswell. 
 
 His parish included not only a somewhat scattered sea- 
 faring population on the main-land, but also the care oi 
 several islands. Like many other of the New England 
 clergy of those times, he united in himself numerous dif- 
 ferent offices for the benefit of the people whom he served 
 
 As there was neither lawyer nor physician in the town, 
 he bad acquired by his reading, and still more by his expe- 
 rience, enough knowledge in both these departments to 
 enable him to administer to the ordinary wants of a very 
 healthy and peaceable people. 
 
 It was said that most of the deeds and legal conveyance* 
 in his parish were in his handwriting, and in the medical 
 line his authority was only rivalled by that of Miss Roxy 
 *ho claimed a very obvious advantage over him in a certain 
 class of cases, from the fact of her being a woman, which 
 was still further increased by the circumstance that the good 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 9fl 
 
 man had retained steadfastly his bachelor estate; "so, of 
 course," Miss Roxy used to say, " poor man ! what could ho 
 know about a woman, you know ? " 
 
 This state of bachelorhood gave occasion to much surmis- 
 ing; but when spoken to about it, he was accustomed to 
 remark with gallantry, that he should have too much regard 
 for any lady whom he could think of as a wife, to ask her to 
 share his straitened circumstances. 
 
 Hu income, indeed, consisted of only about two hundred 
 dollars a year ; but upon this he and a very brisk, cheerful 
 maiden sister contrived to keep up a thrifty and comfortable 
 establishment, in which everything appeared to be pervaded 
 by a spirit of quaint cheerfulness. 
 
 In fact, the man might be seen to be an original in his 
 way, and all the springs of his life were kept oiled by a 
 quiet humor, which sometimes broke out in playful sparkles, 
 despite the gravity of the pulpit and the avvfulness of the 
 cocked hat. 
 
 He had a placid way of amusing himself with the quaint 
 and picturesque side of life, as it appeared in all his visit- 
 ings among a very primitive, yet very shrewd-minded peo- 
 pie. 
 
 There are those people who possess a peculiar faculty of 
 mingling in the affairs of this life as spectators as well as 
 actors. It does not, of course, suppose any coldness of 
 nature or want of human interest or sympathy nay, it 
 often exists most completely with people of the tenderest 
 human feeling. 
 
 It rather seems to be a kind of distinct faculty working 
 harmoniously with all the others ; but he who possesses it 
 needs never to be at a loss for interest or amusement ; he is 
 always a spectator at a tragedy or comedy, and sees in real 
 
96 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 life a humor and a pathos beyond anything he can tnd 
 shadowed in books. 
 
 Mr. Sewell sometimes, in his pastoral visitations, took a 
 quiet pleasure in playing upon these simple minds, and 
 amusing himself with the odd harmonies and singular reso- 
 lutions of chords which started out under his fingers. Sure- 
 ly he had a right to something in addition to his limited sal- 
 ary, and this innocent, unsuspected entertainment helped to 
 make up the balance for his many labors. 
 
 His sister was one of the best-hearted and most unsus- 
 picious of the class of female idolaters, and worshipped her 
 brother with the most undoubting faith and devotion 
 wholly ignorant of the constant amusement she gave him 
 by a thousand little feminine peculiarities, which struck him 
 with a continual sense of oddity. It was infinitely diverting 
 to him to see the solemnity of her interest in his shirts and 
 stockings, and Sunday clothes, and to listen to the subtile 
 distinctions which she would draw between best and second- 
 best, and every day ; to receive her somewhat prolix admo- 
 nition how he was to demean himself in respect of the wear- 
 ing of each one ; for Miss Emily Sewell was a gentlewoman, 
 and held rigidly to various traditions of gentility which had 
 been handed down in the Sewell family, and which afforded 
 her brother too much quiet amusement to be disturbed. He 
 would not have overthrown one of her quiddities for the 
 world ; it would be taking away a part of his capital in 
 existence. 
 
 Miss Emily was a trim, genteel little person, with dancing 
 black eyes, and cheeks which had the roses of youth well 
 dried into them. It was easy to see that she had been quit* 
 pretty in her days ; and her neat figure, her brisk little 
 rivacious ways, her unceasing good-nature and kindness of 
 
T1IE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 97 
 
 heart, still made her an object both of admiration and inter 
 est in the parish. 
 
 She was great in drying herbs and preparing recipes ; in 
 knitting and sewing, and cutting and contriving; in saving 
 every possible snip and chip either of food or clothing ; and 
 no less liberal was she in bestowing advice and aid in the 
 parish, where she moved about with all the sense of conse- 
 quence which her brother's position warranted. 
 
 The fact of his bachelorhood caused his relations to the 
 female part of his flock to be even more shrouded in sacred- 
 ness and mystery than is commonly the case with the great 
 man of the parish ; but Miss Emily delighted to act as in- 
 terpreter. She was charmed to serve out to the willing ears 
 of his parish from time to time such scraps of information 
 as regarded his life, habits, and opinions as might gratify 
 iheir ever new curiosity. 
 
 Instructed by her, all the good wives knew the difference 
 between his very best long silk stockings and his second 
 best, and how carefully the first had to be kept under lock 
 and key, where he could not get at them ; for he was under- 
 stood, good as he was, to have concealed in him all the 
 thriftless and pernicious inconsiderateness of the male 
 nature, ready at any moment to break out into unheard-of 
 improprieties. But the good man submitted himself to Miss 
 Emily's rule, and suffered himself to be led about by her 
 with an air of half whimsical consciousness. 
 
 Mrs. Kittridge that day had felt the full delicacy of the 
 compliment when she ascertained by a hasty glance, before 
 flie first prayer, that the good man had been brought out to 
 i.er funeral in all his very best things, not excepting the 
 long silk stockings, for she knew the second-best pair by 
 means of a certain skilful darn wnich Miss Emily had once 
 5 
 
9S THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 ghown her, which commemorated the spot where a hole had 
 been. The absence of this darn struck to Mrs. Kittridge'a 
 heart at once as a delicate attention. 
 
 "Mis' Simpkins," said Mrs. Kittridge to her pastor, aa 
 they were seated at the tea-table, " told me that she wished 
 when you were going home that you would call in to see 
 Mary Jane she couldn't come out to the funeral on ac- 
 count of a dreffle sore throat. I was tellin' on her to gargle 
 it with blackberry-root tea don't you think that is a good 
 gargle, Mr. Sewell ? " 
 
 *' Yea, I think it a very good gargle," replied the minister, 
 gravely. 
 
 " Ma'sh rosemary is the gargle that I always use," saia 
 Miss Roxy ; " it cleans out your throat so." 
 
 "Marsh rosemary is a very excellent gargle," said Mr. 
 Sewell. 
 
 " Why, brother, don't you think that rose leaves and vit- 
 riol is a good gargle ? " said little Miss Emily ; " I always 
 thought that you liked rose leaves and vitriol for a gargle." 
 
 " So I do," said the imperturbable Mr. Sewell, drinking 
 his tea with the air of a sphinx. 
 
 " Well, now, you '11 have to tell which on 'em will be most 
 likely to cure Mary Jane," said Captain Kittridge, "or 
 there '11 be a pullin' of caps, I 'm thinkin' ; or else the poor 
 girl will have to drink them all, which is generally the 
 way." 
 
 " There won't any of them cure Mary Jane's throat," 
 said the minister, quietly. 
 
 "Why, brother!" "Why, Mr. Sewell!" "Why, you 
 jbn't ! " burst in different tones from each of the women 
 
 " I thought you said that blackberry-root tea was good, 
 said Mrs. Kittridge, 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND, 99 
 
 " I understood that you 'proved of ma'sh rosemary," said 
 Miss Roxy, touched in her professional pride. 
 
 "And I am sure, brother, that I have heard you say v 
 often and often, that there was n't a better gargle than 
 rose leaves and vitriol," said Miss Emily. 
 
 " You are quite right, ladies, all of you. I think these 
 are all good gargles excellent ones." 
 
 " But I thought you said that they didn't do any good?" 
 laid all the ladies in a breath. 
 
 " No, they don't not the least in the world," said Mr. 
 Sewell ; " but they are all excellent gargles, and as long as 
 people must have gargles, I think one is about as good as 
 another." 
 
 " Now you have got it," said Captain Kittridge. 
 
 " Brother, you do say the strangest things," said Miss 
 Emily. 
 
 " Well, I must say," said Miss Roxy, " it is a new idea 
 to me, long as I Ve been nussin', and I nussed through one 
 season of scarlet fever when sometimes there was five diet 
 in one house ; and if ma'sh rosemary did n't do good then, 
 I should like to know what did." 
 
 " So would a good many others," said the minister. 
 
 " Law, now, Miss Roxy, you mus' n't mind him. Do you 
 know that I believe he says these sort of things just to hear 
 us talk ? Of course he would n't think of puttin' his experi- 
 ence against yours." 
 
 " But, Mis' Kittridge," said Miss Emily, with a view of 
 summoning a less controverted subject, " what a beautiful 
 little boy that was, and what a striking providence that 
 brought him into such a good family ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Kittridge ; " but I 'm sure I don't see 
 what Mary Fennel is goin to do with that boy, for she aVt 
 got no more government than a twisted tovt -string." 
 
100 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Oh, the Cap'n, he '11 lend a hand," said Miss Roxy 
 u it won't be easy gettin* roun' him ; Cap'n bears a pretty 
 steady hand when he sets out to drive." 
 
 " Well," said Miss Emily, " I do think that bringin' up 
 children is the most awful responsibility, and I always won- 
 der when I hear that any one dares to undertake it." 
 
 "It requires a great deal of resolution, certainly," saul 
 Mrs. Kittridge ; " I 'm sure I used to get a'most discouraged 
 when my boys was young : they was a reg'lar set of wild 
 ass's colts," she added, not perceiving the reflection on their 
 paternity. 
 
 But the countenance of Mr. Sewell was all aglow with 
 merriment, which did not break into a smile. 
 
 "Wai', Mis' Kittridge," said the Captain, "strikes me 
 that you're gettin' pussonal." 
 
 "No, I a'n't neither," said the literal Mrs. Kittridge 
 ignorant of the cause of the amusement which she saw 
 around her ; " but you wa' n't no help to me, you know ; 
 you was always off to sea, and the whole wear and tear 
 on't carne on me." 
 
 Well, well, Polly, all 's well that ends well ; don't you 
 think so, Mr. Sewell?" 
 
 " I have n't much experience in these matters," said Mr 
 Sewell, politely. 
 
 " No, indeed, that 's what he has n't, for he never will 
 have a child round the house that he don't turn everything 
 topsy-turvy for them," said Miss Emily. 
 
 " But I was going to remark," said Mr. Sewell, " that a 
 friend of mine said once, that the woman that had brought 
 up six boys deserved a seat among the martyrs and thai 
 is rather my opinion." 
 
 " Wai', Polly, if you git up there, I hope you '11 keep 
 *eat for me." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 101 
 
 - Cap'n Kittridge, what levity ! " said his wife. 
 
 a I did n't begin it, anyhow," said the Captain. 
 
 Miss Emily interposed, and led the conversation back to 
 the subject. 
 
 " What a pity it is," she said, " that this poor child's 
 family can never know anything about him. There may 
 be those who would give all the world to know what haa 
 become of him ; and when he comes to grow up, how sad 
 he will feel to have no father and mother ! " 
 
 " Sister," said Mr. Sewell, " you cannot think that a child 
 brought up by Captain Fennel and his wife would ever feel 
 as without father and mother." 
 
 " Why, no, brother, to be sure not. There 's no doubt ho 
 will have everything done for him that a child could. But 
 then it's a loss to lose one's real home." 
 
 " It may be a gracious deliverance," said Mr. Sewell 
 " who knows ? We may as well take a cheerful view, and 
 think that some kind wave has drifted the child away from 
 an unfortunate destiny to a family where we are quite sure 
 he will be brought up industriously and soberly, and in the 
 fear of God." 
 
 " Well, I never thought of that," said Miss Roxy. 
 
 Miss Emily, looking at her brother, saw that he was 
 speaking with a suppressed vehemence, as if some inner 
 fountain of recollection at the moment were disturbed. But 
 Miss Emily knew no more of the deeper parts of her 
 iTother's nature than a little bird that dips its beak into the 
 sunny waters of some spring knows of its depths of cold- 
 uess and shadow. 
 
 " Mis' Fennel was a-saym' to me," said Mrs. Kittridge, 
 * that I should ask you what was to be done about the 
 bracelet they found. We don't knrw whether 'tis real gold 
 
102 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Mid precious stones, or only glass and pinchbeck. Cap'n 
 Kittridge he thinks it's real; and if 'tis, why then the ques- 
 tion is, whether or no to try to sell it, or to keep it for the 
 boy agin he grows up. It may help find out who and what 
 he is." 
 
 " And why should he want to find out ? " said Mr. Sewell 
 "^Why should he not grow up and think himself the son of 
 Captain and Mrs. Fennel ? What better lot could a boy oe 
 born to?" 
 
 "That may be, brother, but it can't be kept from him 
 Everybody knows how he was found, and you may be sure 
 every bird of the air will tell him, and he '11 grow up restless 
 and wanting to know. Mis' Kittridge, have you got the 
 bracelet handy?" 
 
 The fact was, little Miss Emily was just dying with curi- 
 osity to set her dancing black eyes upon it. 
 
 " Here it is," said Mrs. Kittridge, taking it from a 
 drawer. 
 
 It was a bracelet of hair, of some curious foreign work- 
 manship. A green enamelled serpent, studded thickly with 
 emeralds and with eyes of ruby, was curled around the 
 clasp. A crystal plate covered a wide flat braid of hair, on 
 which the letters " D. M." were curiously embroidered in a 
 cipher of seed pearls. The whole was in style and work- 
 manship quite different from any jewelry which ordinarily 
 meets one's eye. 
 
 But what was remarkabb #as the expression in Mr 
 Sewell's face when this bracelet was put into his hand 
 Miss Emily had risen from table and brought it to him, 
 eaning over him as she did so, and he turned his head a 
 little to hold it in the light from the window, so that only 
 she remarked the sudden expression of blank surprise and 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 10S 
 
 startled recognition which fell upon it. He seemed like a 
 man who chokes down an exclamation ; and rising hastily, 
 he took the bracelet to the window, and standing with his 
 back to the company, seemed to examine it with the minut- 
 est interest. After a few moments he turned and said, in ft 
 \ ery composed tone, as if the subject were of no particular 
 interest, 
 
 " It is a singular article, so far as workmanship is con- 
 cerned. The value of the gems in themselves is not great 
 enough to make it worth while to sell it. It will be worth 
 more as a curiosity than anything else. It will doubtless be 
 an interesting relic to keep for the boy when he grows up." 
 
 "Well, Mr. Sewell, you keep it," said Mrs. Kittridge; 
 <; the Fennels told me to give it into your care." 
 
 " I shall commit it to Emily here ; women have a native 
 sympathy with anything in the jewelry line. She '11 be 
 sure to lay it up so securely that she won't even know 
 where it is herself." 
 
 Brother ! " 
 
 " Come, Emily," said Mr. Sewell, " your hens will all go 
 L> roost on the wrong perch if you are not at home to see 
 to them ; so, if the Captain will set us across to Harpswell, 
 I think we may as well be going." 
 
 u Why, what 's your hurry ? " said Mrs. Kittridge. 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Sewell, " firstly, there 's the hens ; sec- 
 ondly, the pigs ; and lastly, the cow. Besides I should n't 
 wonder if some of Emily's admirers should call on her this 
 evening, never any saying when Captain Broad may 
 Dome in" 
 
 u Now, brother, you are too bad," said Miss Emily, as she 
 austled about her bonnet and shawl. " Now, that 's all made 
 vjp out of whole cloth. Captain Broad called last week 
 
104 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 a Monday, to talk to you about the pews, and hardly spoke 
 a word to me. You ought n't to say such things, 'cause it 
 raises reports." 
 
 " Ah, well, then, I won't again," said her brother. " I 
 believe, after all, it was Captain Badger that called twice.' 
 
 Brother ! " 
 
 ** And left you a basket of apples the second time." 
 
 u Brother, you know he only called to get some of my 
 hoarhound for Mehitable's cough." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I remember." 
 
 " If you don't take care," said Miss Emily, I '11 tell 
 where you call." 
 
 " Come, Miss Emily, you must not mind him," said Miss 
 Roxy ; " we all know his ways." 
 
 And now took place the grand leave-taking, which con- 
 sisted first of the three women's standing in a knot and all 
 talking at once, as if their very lives depended upon saying 
 everything they could possibly think of before they separat- 
 ed, while Mr. Sewell and Captain Kittridge stood patiently 
 waiting with the resigned air which the male sex commonly 
 assume on such occasions ; and when, after two or three 
 " Come, Emily's," the group broke up only to form again on 
 the door-step, where they were at it harder than ever, and 
 a third occasion of the same sort took place at the bottom 
 ef the steps, Mr. Sewell was at last obliged by main force 
 to drag his sister away in the middle of a sentence. 
 
 Miss Emily watched her brother shrewdly all the way 
 home, but all traces of any uncommon feeling had passed 
 away, and yet, with the restlessness of female curiosity 
 the felt quita sure that she had laid hold of the end of 
 Bomo skein of mystery, could she only find rkill enougk 
 U> unwind it. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 105 
 
 She took up the bracelet, and held it in the fading even 
 mg light, and broke into various observations with regard 
 to the singularity of the workmanship. 
 
 Her brother seemed entirely absorbed in talking with 
 Captain Kittridge about the brig Anna Maria, which was 
 going to be launched from Fennel's wharf next Wednes- 
 day. 
 
 But she, therefore, internally resolved to lie in wait for 
 the secret in that confidential hour which usually preceded 
 going to bed. 
 
 Therefore, as soon as she had arrived at their qniet dwell- 
 ing, she put in operation the most seducing little fire that 
 ever crackled and snapped in a chimney, well knowing that 
 nothing was more calculated to throw light into any hidden 
 or concealed chamber of the soul than that enlivening blaze 
 which danced so merrily on her well-polished andirons, and 
 made the old chintz sofa and the time-worn furniture so rich 
 in remembrances of family comfort. 
 
 She then proceeded to divest her brother of his wig and 
 his dress-coat, and to induct him into the flowing ease of a 
 study-gown, crowning his well-shaven head with a black cap, 
 and placing his slippers before the corner of a sofa nearest 
 the fire. She observed him with satisfaction sliding into his 
 iteat, and then she trotted to a closet with a glass-door in the 
 corner of the room, and took down an old, quaintly-shaped 
 silver cup, which had been an heirloom in their family, and 
 was the only piece of plate which their modern domestic 
 esfablishment could boast; and with this, down cellar she 
 tripped, her little heels tapping lightly on each stair, and the 
 hum of a song coming back after her as she sought the 
 cider barrel. Up again she came, and set the silver cup, 
 with its clear amber contents, down by the fire, and 
 6* 
 
106 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 busied herself in making just the crispest, nicest square of 
 toast to be eaten with it, for Miss Emily had conceived 
 the idea that some little ceremony of this sort was absolutely 
 necessary to do away all possible ill effects from a day's la- 
 bor, and secure an uninterrupted night's repose. 
 
 Having done all this, she took her knitting-work, and 
 stationed herself just opposite to her brother. 
 
 It was fortunate for Miss Emily that the era of dailj 
 journals had not yet arisen upon the earth, because if it had 
 after all her care and pains, her brother would probably 
 have taken up the evening paper, and holding it between 
 his face and her, have read an hour or so in silence ; but 
 Mr. Sewell had not this resort. He knew perfectly well 
 that he had excited his sister's curiosity on a subject where 
 he could not gratify it, and therefore he took refuge in a 
 kind of mild, abstracted air of quietude which bid defiance 
 to all her little suggestions. 
 
 After in vain trying every indirect form, Miss Emily ap- 
 proached the subject more pointedly. 
 
 " I thought that you looked very much interested in that 
 poor woman to-day." 
 
 " She had an interesting face," said her brother, dryly. 
 
 " Was it like anybody that you ever saw ? " said Miss 
 Emily. 
 
 Her brother did not seem to hear her, but, taking the 
 tongs, picked up the two ends of a stick that had just fallen 
 apart, and arranged them so as to make a new blaze. 
 
 Miss Emily was obliged to repeat her question, whereat 
 he started as one awakened out of a dream, and said, 
 
 " Why, yes, he did n't know but she did ; there were a 
 good many women with black eyes and black hair, Mrs 
 Kittridge, for instance." 
 
THE PKAKL OF ORE'S 1SLAKD. 107 
 
 ** Why, I don't think that she looked like Mrs. TCittridgfc 
 ji the least," said Miss Emily, warmly. 
 
 " Oh, well ! I did n't say she did," said her brother, look- 
 ing drowsily at his watch ; " why, Emily, it 's getting rather 
 late." 
 
 " "What made you look so when I showed you that bra(t> 
 let?" said Miss Emily, determined now to push the war :o 
 the heart of the enemy's country. 
 
 " Look how ? " said her brother, leisurely moistening a 
 bit of toast in his cider. 
 
 " Why, I never saw anybody look more wild and aston- 
 ished than you did for a minute or two." 
 
 " I did, did I ? " said her brother, in the same indifferent 
 tone. " My dear child, what an active imagination you 
 have. Did you ever look through a prism, Emily ? " 
 
 " Why, no, Theonhilus ; what do you mean ? " 
 
 " Well, if you should, you would see everybody and 
 everything with a nice little bordering of rainbow around 
 them ; now the rainbow is n't on the things, but in the 
 prism." 
 
 " Well, what 's that to the purpose ? " said Miss Emily, 
 rather bewildered. 
 
 " Why, just this : you women are so nervous and excita- 
 ble, that you are very apt to see your friends and the world 
 in general with some coloring just as unreal. I am sorry 
 for you, childie, but really I can't help you to get up a ro- 
 mance out of this bracelet. Well, good- night, Emily, take 
 pood care of yourself and go to bed ; " and Mr. Sewell went 
 to his room, leaving poor Miss Emily almost persuaded out 
 ni the sight of her own eyes. 
 
108 THE FE4BL OF ORE'S 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE little boy who had been added to the family of 
 Zephaniah Fennel and his wife soon became a source of 
 grave solicitude to that mild and long-suffering woman. 
 For, as the reader may have seen, he was a resolute, self- 
 willed little elf, and whatever his former life may have been, 
 it was quite evident that these traits had been developed 
 without any restraint. 
 
 Mrs. Fennel, whose whole domestic experience had con- 
 sisted in rearing one very sensitive and timid daughter, who 
 needed for her development only an extreme of tenderness, 
 and whose conscientiousness was a law unto herself, stood 
 utterly confounded before the turbulent little spirit to which 
 her loving-kindness had opened so ready an asylum, and she 
 soon discovered that it is one thing to take a human being to 
 bring up, and another to know what to do with it after it is 
 taken. 
 
 The child had the instinctive awe of Zephaniah which his 
 manly nature and habits of command were fitted to inspire, 
 BO that morning and evening, when he was at home, he was 
 demure enough ; but while the goocP man was away all day, 
 and sometimes on fishing excursions which cften lasted a 
 week, there was a chronic state of domestic warfare i 
 succession of skirmishes, pitched battles, long treaties, with 
 divers articles of capitulation, ending, as treaties are ap f , to 
 1o, in open rupture on the first convenient opportunity. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 109 
 
 M rs. VLMV! sometimes reflected with herself mournfully, 
 imd with vto.iy self-disparaging sighs, what was the reason 
 that young master somehow contrived to keep her far more 
 in awe of h:'ra than be was of her. Was she not evidently, 
 as yet at least, bigger and stronger than he, able to hold his 
 rebellious little hands, to lift and carry him, and to shut him 
 up, if so she willed, in a dark closet, and even to administer 
 to him that discipline of the birch which Mrs. Kittridge 
 often and forcibly recommended as the great secret of her 
 family prosperity ? Was it not her duty, as everybody told 
 her, to break his will while he was young ? a duty which 
 hung like a millstone round the peaceable creature's neck, 
 and weighed her down with a distressing sense of respon- 
 sibility. 
 
 Now, Mrs. Pennel was one of the people to whom self- 
 sacrifice is constitutionally so much a nature, that self-denial 
 for her must have consisted in standing up for her own 
 rights, or having her own way when it crossed the will 
 and pleasure of any one around her. All she wanted of 
 a child, or in fact of any human creature, was something to 
 love and serve. We leave it entirely to theologians to rec- 
 oncile such facts with the theory of total depravity ; but it 
 it a fact that there are a considerable number of women of 
 this class. Their life would flow en very naturally if it 
 might consist only in giving, never in withholding only in 
 praise, never in blame only in acquiescence, never in con- 
 flict and the chief comfort of such .women in religion \\ 
 that it gives them at last an object for love without criticism, 
 and for whom the utmost degree of self-abandonment is not 
 idolatry but worship. 
 
 Mrs. Pennel would gladly have placed herself and all she 
 possessed at the disposition of the children ; they might have 
 
110 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 broken her china, dug in the garden with her silver spoony 
 made turf alleys in her best room, drummed on her ma- 
 hogany tea-table, filled her muslin drawer with their choicest 
 shells and sea- weed ; only Mrs. Fennel knew that such kind- 
 ness was no kindness, and that in the dreadful word respon- 
 sibility, familiar to every New England mother's ear, thera 
 lay an awful summons to deny and to conflict where she 
 could so much easier have conceded. 
 
 She saw that the tyrant little will would reign without 
 mercy, if it reigned at all, and ever present with her was the 
 uneasy sense that it was her duty to bring this erratic little 
 comet within the laws of a well-ordered solar system, a 
 task to which she felt about as competent as to make a new 
 ring for Saturn. Then, too, there was a secret feeling, if 
 the truth must be told, of what Mrs. Kittridge would think 
 about it ; for duty is never more formidable than when she 
 gets on the cap and gown of a neighbor ; and Mrs. Kit- 
 tridge, with her resolute voice and declamatory family gov- 
 ernment, had always been a secret source of uneasiness to 
 ^oor Mrs. Fennel, who was one of those sensitive souls who 
 lan feel for a mile or more the sphere of a stronger neigh- 
 bor. During all the years that they had lived side by side, 
 there had been this shadowy, unconfessed feeling on the part 
 if poor Mrs. Fennel, that Mrs. Kittridge thought her de- 
 ficient in her favorite virtue of " resolution," as, in fact, in 
 her inmost soul she knew she was; but who wants to have 
 one's weak places looked into by the sharp eyes of a neigh- 
 bor who is strong precisely where we are weak ? The 
 trouble that one neighbor may give to another, simply by 
 living within a mile of one, is incredible ; but until this new 
 accession to her family, Mrs. Fennel had always been able 
 to comfort herself with the idea that the child under he? 
 
THE PEARL OF OKR'S ISLAND. Ill 
 
 particular training was as well-behaved as any of those of 
 her more demonstrative friend. But now, all this consola- 
 tion had been put to flight ; she could not meet Mrs. Kit- 
 tridge without most humiliating recollections. 
 
 On Sundays, when those sharp black eyes gleamed upon 
 her through the rails of the neighboring pew, her very soul 
 shrank within her, as she recollected all the compromise* 
 and defeats of the week before. It seemed to her that Mrs. 
 Kittridge saw it all, how she had ingloriously bought 
 peace with gingerbread, instead of maintaining it by right- 
 ful authority, how young master had sat up till nine 
 o'clock on divers occasions, and even kept little Mara up 
 for his lordly pleasure. 
 
 How she trembled at every movement of the child in the 
 pew, dreading some patent and open impropriety which 
 should bring scandal on her government ! This was the 
 more to be feared, as the first effort to initiate the youthful 
 neophyte in the decorums of the sanctuary had proved any- 
 thing but a success, insomuch that Zephaniah Fennel had 
 been obliged to carry him out from the church ; therefore, 
 poor Mrs. Pennel was thankful every Sunday when she 
 got her little charge home without any distinct scandal and 
 breach of the peace. 
 
 But, after all, he was such a handsome and engaging little 
 wretch, attracting all eyes wherever he went, and so full of 
 saucy drolleries, that it seemed to Mrs. Pennel that every- 
 thing and everybody conspired to help her spoil him. 
 
 There are two classes of human beings in this world : one 
 rlass seem made to give love, and the other to take it. Now 
 Mrs. Pennel and Mara belonged to the first class, and little 
 Master Moses to the latter. 
 
 It was, perhaps, of service to the little girl to give to her 
 
112 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 delicate, shrinking, highly nervous organization the constant 
 support of a companion so courageous, so richly blooded, 
 and highly vitalized as the boy seemed to be. There was a 
 fervid, tropical richness in his air that gave one a sense of 
 warmth in looking at him, and made his Oriental name 
 seem in good-keeping. He seemed an exotic that might 
 have waked up under fervid Egyptian suns, and been found 
 cradled among the lotus blossoms of old Nile, and the fair 
 golden-haired girl seemed to be gladdened by his compan- 
 ionship, as if he supplied an element of vital warmth to her 
 being. She seemed to incline toward him as naturally as a 
 needle to a magnet. 
 
 The child's quickness of ear and the facility with whicl he 
 picked up English were marvellous to observe. Evidently, 
 he had been somewhat accustomed to the sound of it before, 
 for there dropped out of his vocabulary, after he began to 
 speak, phrases which would seem to betoken a longer 
 familiarity with its idioms than could be equally accounted 
 for by his present experience. Though the English evi- 
 dently was not his native language, there had yet appar- 
 ently been some effort to teach it to him although the 
 terror and confusion of the shipwreck seemed at first to 
 have washed every former impression from his mind. 
 
 But whenever any attempt was made to draw him to 
 Bpeak of the past, of his mother, or of where he came from, 
 his brow lowered gloomily, and he assumed that kind of 
 moody, impenetrable gravity, which children at times will 
 BO strangely put on, and which baffle all attempts to look 
 within them. Zephaniah Pennel used to call it putting up 
 Us dead-lights. 
 
 Perhaps it was the dreadful association of agony and ter 
 ror connected with the shipwreck, that thus confused and 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 113 
 
 darkened the mirror of his mind the moment it was turned 
 backward ; but it was thought wisest by his new friends to 
 avoid that class of subjects altogether indeed, it was their 
 wish that he might forget the past entirely, and remember 
 them as his only parents. 
 
 Miss Roxy and Miss Ruey came duly as appointed to in- 
 itiate the young pilgrim into the habil'rnents of a Yankee 
 boy, endeavoring, at the same time, to Irop into his mind 
 such seeds of moral wisdom as might make the internal 
 economy in time correspond to the exterior. 
 
 But Miss Roxy declared that "of all the children that 
 ever she see, he beat all for finding out new mischief, the 
 moment you 'd make him understand he must n't do one 
 thing, he was right at another." 
 
 One of his exploits, however, had very nearly been the 
 means of cutting short the materials of our story in the 
 outset. 
 
 It was a warm, sunny afternoon, and the three women, 
 being busy together with their stitching, had tied a sun- 
 bonnet on little Mara, and turned the two loose upon the 
 beach to pick up shells. 
 
 All was serene, and quiet, and retired, and no possible 
 danger could be apprehended. So up and down they 
 trotted, till the spirit of adventure which ever burned in 
 the breast of little Moses caught sight of a small canoe 
 which had been moored just under the shadow of a cedar- 
 covered rock. 
 
 Forthwith he persuaded his little neighbor to go into it, 
 and for a while they made themselves very gay, rocking it 
 from side to side. 
 
 The tide was going out, and each retreating wave washed 
 the boat up and down, till it came into the boy's curly head 
 
114 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 how beautiful it would be to sail out as he had seen men do> 
 and so, with much puffing and earnest tugging of his little 
 brown hands, the boat a. x ast was loosed from her moorings 
 and pushed out on the tide, when both children laughed 
 gayly to find themselves swinging and balancing on the 
 amber surface, and watching the rings and sparkles of sun- 
 shine and the white pebbles below. Little Moses wa* 
 glorious, his adventures had begun, and with a fairy- 
 princess in his boat, he was going to stretch away to some 
 of the islands of dream-land. He persuaded Mara to give 
 him her pink sun-bonnet, which he placed for a pennon on a 
 stick at the end of the boat, while he made a vehement 
 dashing with another, first on one side of the boat and then 
 on the other, spattering the water in diamond showers, to 
 the infinite amusement of the little maiden. 
 
 Meanwhile the tide waves danced them out and still out- 
 ward, and as they went farther and farther from shore, the 
 more glorious felt the boy. He had got Mara all to himself, 
 and was going away with her from all grown people, who 
 would n't let children do as they pleased, who made them 
 sit still in prayer-time, and took them to meeting, and kept 
 so many things which they must not touch, or open, or play 
 with. Two white sea-gulls came flying toward the children, 
 and they stretched their little arms in welcome, nothing 
 doubting but these fair creatures were coming at once to 
 take passage with them for fairy-land. But the birds only 
 dived and shifted and veered, turning their silvery sides 
 toward the sun, and careering in circles round the children. 
 A brisk little breeze, that came hurrying down from the 
 land, seemed disposed to favor their unsubstantial enterprise, 
 for your winds, being a fanciful, uncertain tribe of people, 
 we always for falling in with any th jig that is contrary U 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 115 
 
 fommon sense. So the wind trolled them merrily along, 
 nothing doubting that there might be time, if they hurried, 
 to land their boat on the shore of some of the low-banked 
 red clouds that lay in the sunset, where they could pick up 
 shells, blue and pink and purple, enough to make 
 them rich for life. The children were all excitement nt the 
 rapidity with which their little bark danced and rocked, as 
 it floated outward to the broad, open ocean, at the blue, 
 freshening waves, at the silver-glancing gulls, at the floating, 
 white-winged ships, and at vague expectations of going 
 rapidly somewhere, to something more beautiful still. And 
 what is the happiness of the brightest hours of grown people 
 more than this ? 
 
 " Roxy," said Aunt Ruey innocently, " seems to me I 
 have n't heard nothin' o' them children lately. They 're so 
 still, I 'm 'fraid there 's some mischief." 
 
 "Well, Ruey, you jist go and give a look at *em," said 
 Miss Roxy. " I declare, that boy ! I never know what he 
 will do next ; but there did n't seem to be nothin' to get into 
 out there but the sea, and the beach is so shelving, a body 
 can't well fall into that." 
 
 Alas ! good Miss Roxy, the children are at this moment 
 tilting up and down on the waves, half a mile out to sea, as 
 airily happy as the sea-gulls ;. and little Moses now thinks, 
 with glorious scorn, of you and your press-board, as of grim 
 shadows of restraint and bondage that shall never darken 
 his free life more. 
 
 Both Miss Roxy and Mrs. Fennel were, however, startled 
 into a paroxysm of alarm when poor Miss Ruey came 
 screaming, as she entered the door, 
 
 " As sure as you Y alive, them chil'en are off in the boat, 
 they Y out to sea, sure as I m alive ! What shall we 
 lo? The boat '11 upset, and the shark? '11 get 'em." 
 
116 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 Miss Roxy ran to the window, and saw dancing and 
 courtesying on the blue waves the little pinnace, with its 
 fanciful pink pennon fluttered gayly by the indiscreet and 
 flattering wind. 
 
 Poor Mrs. Fennel ran to the shore, and stretched her 
 arms wildly, as if she would have followed them across the 
 treacherous blue floor that heaved and sparkled between 
 them. 
 
 "Oh, Mara, Mara! oh, my poor little girl! oh, pool 
 children ! " 
 
 " Well, if ever I see such a young un as that," soliloquized 
 Miss Roxy from the chamber-window; "there they be, 
 dancin' and giggitin' about ; they '11 have the boat upset 
 in a minit, and the sharks are waitin' for 'era, no doubt. 1 
 b'lieve that ar young un 's helped by the Evil One, not a 
 boat round, else I 'd push off after 'em. Well, I don't see 
 but we must trust in the Lord, there don't seem to be 
 much else to trust to," said the spinster, as she drew her 
 head in grimly. 
 
 To say the truth, there was some reason for the terror of 
 these most fearful suggestions ; for not far from the place 
 where the children embarked was Zephaniah's fish-drying 
 ground, and multitudes of sharks came up with every rising 
 tide, allured by the offal that was here constantly thrown 
 into the sea. Two of these prowlers, outward-bound from 
 their quest, were even now assiduously attending the little 
 boat, and the children derived no small amusement frona 
 watching their motions in the pellucid water, the boy oc- 
 casionally almost upsetting the boat by valorous plunges at 
 them with his stick. It was the most exhilarating and 
 piquant entertainment he had found for many a day ; and 
 Uttle Mara laughed in chorus at every lunge that he mada 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 117 
 
 What would have been the end of it all it is difficult to 
 lay, had not some mortal power interfered before they had 
 sailed finally away into the sunset. 
 
 But it so happened on this very afternoon, Rev. Mr. 
 Sewell was out in a boat, busy in the very apostolic em 
 ployment of catching fish, and looking up from one of tho 
 contemplative pauses which his occupation induced, ho 
 rnbbed his eyes at the apparition which presented itself. 
 
 A tiny little shell of a boat came drifting toward him, in 
 \vhich was a black-eyed boy, with cheeks like a pomegran- 
 ate, and lustrous tendrils of silky dark hair, and a little 
 golden-haired girl, white as a water-lily, and looking ethereal 
 enough to have risen out of the sea-foam. Both were in the 
 very sparkle and effervescence of that fanciful glee which 
 bubbles up from the golden, untried fountains of ftarly child- 
 hood. 
 
 Mr. Sewell, at a glance, comprehended the whole, and at 
 once overhauling the tiny craft, he broke the spell of fairy- 
 land, and constrained the little people to return to the con- 
 fines, dull and dreary, of real and actual life. 
 
 Neither of then} had known a doubt or a fear in that joy- 
 ous trance of forbidden pleasure, which shadowed with so 
 many fears the wiser and more far-seeing heads and hearts 
 of the grown people ; nor was there enough language yet in 
 common between the two classes to make the little ones 
 comprehend the risk they had run. 
 
 Perhaps so do our elder brothers, in our Father's house, 
 look anxiously out when we are sailing gayly over life's sea, 
 over unknown depths, amid threatening monsters, 
 but want words to tell us why what seems so bright is so 
 dangerous. 
 
 Duty herself could not have worn a more rigid aspect 
 
118 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 than Miss Roxy, as she stood on the beach, press-board in 
 hand ; for she had forgotten to lay it down in the eagerness 
 of her anxiety. She essayed to lay hold of the little hand 
 of Moses to pull him from the boat, but he drew back, and,, 
 looking at her with a world of defiance in his great eyes, 
 jumped magnanimously upon the beach. 
 
 The spirit of Sir Francis Drake and of Christopher Colum- 
 bus was swelling in his little body, and was he to be brought 
 unier by a dry-visaged woman with a press-board ? 
 
 In fact, nothing is more ludicrous about the escapades of 
 c lildren than the utter insensibility they feel to the dangers 
 they have run, and the light esteem in which they hold the 
 deep tragedy they create. 
 
 That night, when Zephaniah, in his evening exercise, 
 poured forth most fervent thanksgivings for the deliver- 
 ance, while Mrs. Pennel was sobbing in her handkerchief, 
 Miss Roxy was much scandalized by seeing the young cause 
 of all the disturbance sitting upon his heels, regarding the 
 emotion of the kneeling party with his wide bright eyes, 
 without a wink of compunction. 
 
 " Well, for her part," she said, " she hped Cap'n Pennel 
 would be blessed in takin' that ar boy ; but she was sure shft 
 did n't see much that looked like it now." 
 
 ******* 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Sewell fished no more that day, for the 
 draught from fairy-land with which he had filled his boat 
 brought up many thoughts into his mind, which he pondered 
 anxiously. 
 
 " Strange ways of God," he thought, " that should send to 
 ray door this child, and should wash upon the beach the only 
 sign by which he could be identified. To what end or pur 
 pose ? Hath the Lord a will in this matter, and what is it ? 
 
THE PEARL OF GRITS ISLAND. 119 
 
 So ho thought as he slowly rowed homeward, and so did 
 ais thoughts work upon him that half way across the bay to 
 Harpf.well he slackened his oar without knowing it, and the 
 hoat lay drifting on the purple and gold tinted mirror, like a 
 speck between two eternities. Under such circumstances, 
 even heads that have worn the clerical wig for years at 
 times get a little dizzy and dreamy. Perhaps it was because 
 of the impression made upon him by the sudden apparition 
 of those great dark eyes and sable curls, that he now thought 
 of the boy that he had found floating that afternoon, looking 
 as if some tropical flower had been washed landward by a 
 monsoon ; and as the boat rocked and tilted, and the minister 
 gazed dreamily downward into the wavering rings of purple, 
 orange, and gold which spread out and out from it, gradually 
 it seemed to him that a face much like the child's formed 
 itself in the waters; but it was the face of a girl, young 
 and radiantly beautiful, yet with those same eyes and curls, 
 he saw her distinctly, with her thousand rings of silky 
 hair, bound with strings of pearls and clasped with stiange 
 gems, and she raised one arm imploringly to him, and on the 
 -vrist he saw the bracelet embroidered with seed pearls, and 
 the letters D. M. " Ah, Dolores," he said, " well wert thou 
 called so. Poor Dolores ! I cannot help thee." 
 
 " What am I dreaming of? " said the Rev. Mr. Sewell. 
 " It is my Thursday evening lecture on Justification, and 
 Emily has got tea ready, and here I am catching cold out on 
 Ilic bay." 
 
120 THE IARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MR. SEWELL, as the reader may perhaps have inferred, 
 was of a nature profoundly secretive. 
 
 It was in most things quite as pleasant for him to keep 
 matters to himself, as it was to Miss Emily to tell them to 
 somebody else. 
 
 She resembled more than anything one of those trotting, 
 chattering little brooks that enliven the " back lot " of many 
 a New England home, while he was like one of those wells 
 you shall sometimes see by a deserted homestead, so long 
 unused that ferns and lichens feather every stone down to 
 the dark, cool water. 
 
 Dear to him was the stillness and coolness of inner 
 thoughts with which no stranger intermeddles ; dear to him 
 every pendent fern-leaf of memory, every dripping moss of 
 old recollection ; and though the waters of his soul came up 
 healthy and refreshing enough when one really must have 
 them, yet one had to go armed with bucket and line and 
 draw them up, they never flowed. 
 
 One of his favorite maxims was, that the only way to 
 keep a secret was never to let any one suspect that you 
 have one. And as he had one now, he had, as you hav 
 seer:, done his best to baffle and put to sleep the feminine 
 curiosity of his sister. 
 
 He rather wanted to tell her, too, for he was a good-na- 
 tured brother, and would have liked to have given her th 
 
THE PEARL OF GRK S ISLAND. 121 
 
 amount of pleasure the confidence would have produced ; but 
 then he reflected with dismay on the number of women in 
 his parish with whom Miss Emily was on tea-drinking terms, 
 he thought of the wondrous solvent powers of that bev- 
 erage in whose amber depths so many resolutions, yea, and 
 solemn vows, of utter silence have been dissolved like Cleo- 
 patra's pearls. 
 
 lie knew tfiat an infusion of his secret would steam up 
 from every cup of tea Emily should drink for six months to 
 come, till gradually every particle would be dissolved and 
 float in the air of common fame. No ; it would not do. 
 
 You would have thought, however, that something was the 
 matter with Mr. Sewell, had you seen him after he retired 
 for the night after he had so very indifferently dismissed the 
 subject of Miss Emily's inquiries. For instead of retiring 
 quietly to bed, as had been his habit for years at that hour, 
 ne locked his door, and then unlocked a desk of private 
 papers, and emptied certain pigeon-holes of their contents, 
 and for an hour or two sat unfolding and looking over old 
 letters and papers, and when all this was done, he pushed 
 them from him and sat for a long time buried in thoughts 
 which went down very, very deep into that dark and mossy 
 Well of which we have spoken. 
 
 Then he took a pen and wrote a letter, and addressed it 
 tc a direction for which he had searched through many piles 
 of paper, and having done so, seemed to ponder, uncertainly, 
 whether lo send it or not. The Harpswell post-office ww 
 kept in Mr. Silas Perm's store, and the letters were every 
 one (if them carefully and curiously investigated by all the 
 gossips of the village, and as this was addressed to St. Augus- 
 tine in Florida, he foresaw that tefore Sunday the newa 
 ivculd be in every mouth in th" parish that the ministei 
 ft 
 
122 THE PEARL OF GRITS ISLAND. 
 
 bad \* ritten to so und so in Florida, " and what do you s'posc 
 it 's about ? " 
 
 " No, no," he said to himself, " that will never do ; but at 
 all events there is no hurry," and he put back the papers in 
 order, put the letter with them, and locking his desk, looked 
 at his watch and found it to be two o'clock, and so he went 
 to bed to think the matter over. 
 
 Now, there may be some reader so simple as to feel a por 
 tion of Miss Emily's curiosity. But, my friend, restrain it, 
 for Mr. Sewell will certainly, as we foresee, become less 
 rather than more communicative on this subject, as he 
 thinks upon it. 
 
 Nevertheless, whatever it be that he knows or suspects, it 
 is something which leads him to contemplate with more than 
 usual interest this little mortal waif that has so strangely 
 come ashore in . his parish. 
 
 He mentally resolves to study the child as minutely as 
 possible, without betraying that he has any particular reason 
 for being interested in him. 
 
 Therefore, in the latter part of this mild November after- 
 noon, which he has devoted to pastoral visiting, about two 
 months after the funeral, he steps into his little sail-boat, and 
 stretches away for the shores of Orr's Island. He knows 
 the sun will be down before he reaches there ; but he sees 
 in the opposite horizon, the spectral, shadowy moon, only 
 waiting for daylight to be gone to come out, calm and ra- 
 diant, like a saintly friend neglected in the flush of pros- 
 perity, whc waits patiently to enliven our hours of darkness. 
 
 As his boat-keel grazed the sands on the other side, a 
 uhout of laughter came upon his ear from behind a cedar- 
 covered rock, and soon emerged Captain Kittridge, as long 
 find lean and brown as the Ancient Mariner, carrying little 
 
THE PEARL OF OKR'S ISLAND. 123 
 
 on one shoulder, while Sally and little Moses Fennel 
 trotted on before. 
 
 It was difficult to say who in this whole group was in the 
 highest spirits. The fact was that Mrs. Kittridge had gone 
 to a tea-drinking over at Maquoit, and left the Captain as 
 house-keeper and general overseer ; and little Mara and 
 Moses and Sally had been gloriously keeping holiday with 
 him down by the boat-cove, where, to say the truth, few 
 shavings were made, except those necessary to adorn the 
 children's heads with flowing suits of curls of a most ex- 
 traordinary effect. The aprons of all of them were full of 
 these most unsubstantial specimens of woody treasure, which 
 hung out in long festoons, looking of a yellow transparency 
 in the evening light. But the delight of the children in 
 their acquisitions was only equalled by that of grown-up 
 people in possessions equally fanciful in value. 
 
 The mirth of the little party, however, came to a sudden 
 pause as they met the minister. Mara clung tight to the 
 Captain's neck, and looked out slyly under her curls. But 
 the little Moses made a step forward, and fixed his bold, dark, 
 inquisitive eyes upon him. The fact was, that the minister 
 had been impressed upon the boy, in his few visits to the 
 " meeting," as such a grand and mysterious reason for good 
 behavior, that he seemed resolved to embrace the first oppor- 
 tunity to study him close at hand. 
 
 " Well, my little man," said Mr. Sewell, with an affability 
 which he could readily assume with children, " you seem to 
 like to look at me." 
 
 "I do like to look at you," said the boy gravely, continu* 
 ing to fix his great black eyes upon him. 
 
 " I see you do, my little fellow." 
 
 " Are you the Lord? " said the child, solemnly. 
 
124 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 " Am I what ? " 
 
 The Lord," said the boy. 
 
 " No, indeed, ray lad," said Mr. Sewcll, smiling. " Why 
 what put tha* into your little head?" 
 
 " I thought you were," said the boy, still continuing t< 
 study the pastor with attention. " Miss Roxy said so." 
 
 " It 's curious what notions chiPen will get in their heads,* 
 paid Captain Kittridge. " They put this and that together 
 and think it over, and come out with such queer things." 
 
 " But/' said the minister, " I have brought something for 
 you all ; " saying which he drew from his pocket three little 
 bright-cheeked apples, and gave one to each child ; and then 
 taking the hand of the little Moses in his own, he walked 
 with Him toward the house-door. 
 
 Mrs. Fennel was sitting in her clean kitchen, busily spin- 
 ning at the little wheel, and rose flushed with pleasure at 
 the honor that was done her. 
 
 " Pray, walk in, Mr. Sewell," she said, rising, and leading 
 the way toward the penetralia of the best room. 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Fennel, I am come here for a good sit-down 
 by your kitchen-fire this evening," said Mr. Sewell. " Em- 
 ily has gone out to sit with old Mrs. Broad, who is laid up 
 with the rheumatism, and so 1 am turned loose to pick up 
 my living on the parish, and you must give me a seat for a 
 while in your kitchen corner. Best rooms are always cold." 
 
 "The minister's right," said Captain Kittridge. "When 
 rcoms n'n't much set in, folks never feel so kind o' natural 
 in 'em. So you jist let me put on a good back-log and fore- 
 stick, and build up a fire to tell stories by this evening. My 
 wife's gone out to tea, too," he said, with an elastic skip. 
 
 And in a few moments the Captain had produced in the 
 great cavernous chimney a foundation for a fire that prom 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 125 
 
 ised breadth, solidity, and continuance. A great back-log, 
 embroidered here and there with tufts of green or grayish 
 moss, was first flung into the capacious arms of the fire- 
 place, and a smaller log placed above it. 
 
 " Now, all you young uns go out and bring in chips," said 
 the Captain. " There 's capital ones out to the wood-pile." 
 
 Mr. Sewell was pleased to see the flash that came from 
 the eyes of little Moses at this order how energetically 
 he ran before the others, and came with glowing cheeks and 
 distended arms, throwing down great white chips with their 
 green mossy bark, scattering tufts on the floor. 
 
 " Good," said he -softly to himself, as he leaned on the top 
 of his gold-headed cane ; " there's *nergy, ambition, mus- 
 cle ; " and he nodded his head once or twice to some internal 
 decision. 
 
 " There ! " said the Captain, rising out of a perfect whirl- 
 wind of chips and pine kindlings with which in his zeal he 
 had bestrown the wide, black stone hearth, and pointing to 
 the tongues of flame that were leaping and blazing up 
 through the crevices of the dry pine wood which he had in- 
 termingled plentifully with the more substantial fuel, 
 " there, Mis' Fennel, a'n't I a master-hand at a fire ? But 
 T'm really sorry I've dirtied your floor," he said, as he 
 urushed down his pantaloons, which were covered with bits 
 of grizzly moss, and looked on the surrounding desolations ; 
 'give me a broom, I can sweep up now as well as any 
 woman." 
 
 " Oh, never mind," said Mrs. Fennel, laughing, " I '11 
 sweep up." 
 
 " Well, now, Mis' Fennel, you 'r3 one of the women that 
 Jon't get put out easy ; a'n't ye ? " said the Captain, still 
 contemplating his fire with a proud and watchful eye. 
 
126 THE PEARL OF ORR'S TSLAKD. 
 
 "Law me!" he exclaimed, glancing through the window, 
 f * there 's the Cap'n a-comin'. I 'm jist goin' to give a look at 
 ivhat he 's brought in. Come, chil'en," and the Captain dis- 
 appeared with all three of the children at his heels, to go 
 down to examine the treasures of the fishing-smack. 
 
 Mr. Sewell seated himself coseyly in the chimney corner 
 and sank into a state of half-dreamy revery ; his eyes fixed 
 on the fairest sight one can see of a frosty autumn twilight 
 a crackling wood-fire. 
 
 Mrs. Fennel moved soft-footed to and fro, arraying her 
 tea-table in her own finest and pure damask, and bringing 
 from hidden stores her best china and newest silver, her 
 choicest sweetmeats and cake whatever was fairest and 
 nicest in her house to honor her unexpected guest. 
 
 Mr. Sewell's eyes followed her occasionally about the 
 room, with an expression of pleased and curious satisfaction. 
 He was taking it all in as an artistic picture that simple, 
 kindly hearth, with its mossy logs, yet steaming with the 
 moisture of the wild woods the table so neat, so cheery, 
 with its many little delicacies, and refinements of appoint- 
 ment, and its ample varieties to tempt the appetite and 
 then the Captain coming in, yet fresh and hungry from hia 
 afternoon's toil, with the children trotting before him. 
 
 "And this is the inheritance he comes into," he mur- 
 mured ; " healthy wholesome cheerful secure : how 
 much better than hot, stifling luxury ! " 
 
 Here the minister's meditations were interrupted by the 
 entrance of all the children, joyful and loquacious. Little 
 Moseo Leld up a string of mackerel, with their gracefu; 
 bodies and elegantly cut fins. 
 
 " Just a specimen of the best, Mary," said Captain Pen 
 0*1. " I thought I 'd bring 'em for Miss Emily." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 127 
 
 "Miss Emily will be a thousand times obliged to you," 
 laid Mr. Sewell, rising up. 
 
 As to Mara and Sally, they were revelling in apronsful of 
 shells and sea-weed, which they bustled into the other room 
 to bestow in their spacious baby-house. 
 
 And now, after due time for Zephaniah to assume a laud 
 toilet, all sat down to the evening meal. 
 
 After supper was over, the Captain was besieged by the 
 children. Little Mara mounted first into his lap, and nestled 
 herself quietly under his coat Moses and Sally stood at 
 each knee. 
 
 " Come, now," said Moses, " you said you would tell ua 
 about the mermen to-night." 
 
 " Yes, and the mermaids," said Sally. " Tell them all you 
 told me the other night in the trundle-bed." 
 
 Sally valued herself no little on the score of the Captain's 
 talent as a romancer. 
 
 " You see, Moses," she said, volubly, " father saw mermen 
 and mermaids a plenty of them in the "West Indies." 
 
 " Oh, never mind about 'ein now," said Captain Kittridge, 
 looking at Mr. Sewell's corner. 
 
 "Why not, father? mother isn't here,* said Sally, inno- 
 cently. 
 
 A smile passed round the faces of the company, and Mr. 
 Sewell said, " Come, Captain, no modesty ; we all know 
 you have as good a faculty for telling a story as for making 
 A fire." 
 
 " Do tell me what mermen are ? " said Moses. 
 
 " Wai'," said the Captain, sinking his voice confidentially, 
 and hitching his chair a little around, " mermen and maids 
 la a kind o' people that have their world jist like our'u, 
 &nly it 's down in the bottom of the sea, 'cause the bottom 
 
128 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 of the sea has its mountains and its valleys, and its trees 
 and its bushes, and it stands to reason there should be peo- 
 ple there too." 
 
 Moses opened his broad black eyes wider than usual, and 
 looked absorbed attention. 
 
 " Tell 'em about how you saw 'em," said Sally. 
 
 " Wai', yes," said Captain Kittridge, " once when I WEE 
 to the Bahamas, it was one Sunday morning in June, the 
 first Sunday in the month, we cast anchor pretty nigh a 
 reef of coral, and I was jist a-sittin' down to read my 
 Bible, when up comes a merman over the side of the ship, 
 all dressed as fine as any old beau that ever ye see, with 
 cocked-hat and silk stockings, and shoe-buckles, and his 
 clothes were sea-green, and his shoe-buckles shone like 
 diamonds." 
 
 " Do you suppose they were diamonds, really ? " said 
 Sally. 
 
 " Wai', child, I did n't ask him, but I should n't be sur- 
 prised, from all I know of their ways, if they was," said the 
 Captain, who had now got so wholly into the spirit of his 
 fiction that he no longer felt embarrassed by the minister's 
 presence, nor saw the look of amusement with which he was 
 listening to him in his chimney-corner. " But, as I was 
 sayin', he came up to me, and made the politest bow that 
 ever ye see, and says he, ' Cap'n Kittridge, I presume,' and 
 says I, * Yes, sir.' ' I 'm sorry to interrupt your reading/ 
 says he ; and says I 4 ' Oh, no matter, si".' 4 But,' says he, 
 1 if you would only be so good as to move your anchor 
 You've cast anchor right before my front-door, and my 
 wife and family can't get out to go to meetinV " 
 
 " Why, do they go to meeting in the bottom of the sea?' 
 Baid Moses. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 129 
 
 * Law, bless you sonny, yes. Why, Sunday morning, 
 irhen the sea was all still, I used to hear the bass-viol a- 
 Boundin' down under the waters, jist as plain as could be, 
 and psalms and preachin'. I 've reason to think there 's 
 RS many hopefully pious mermaids as there be folks," said 
 the Captain. 
 
 " But," said Moses, " you said the anchor was before the 
 fr^nt-door, so the family could n't get out, how did thi 
 msrraan get out ? " 
 
 " Oh ! he got out of the scuttle on the roof," said th 
 Captain, promptly. 
 
 " And did you move your anchor ? " said Moses. 
 
 " Why, child, yes, to be sure I did ; he was such a, gen 
 tleman, I wanted to oblige him, it shows you how impor 
 tant it is always to be polite," said the Captain, by way of 
 giving a moral turn to his narrative. 
 
 Mr. Sewell, during the progress of this story, examine* 
 the Captain with eyes of amused curiosity. His counte 
 nance was as fixed and steady, and his whole manner of 
 reciting as matter-of-fact and collected, as if he were relat 
 ing some of the every-day affairs of his boat-building. 
 
 " Wai', Sally," said the Captain, rising, after his yarr 
 had proceeded for an indefinite length in this manner, " yok 
 and I must be goin'. I promised your ma you should ii'i 
 be up late, and we have a long walk home, besides it 'a 
 time these little folks was in bed." 
 
 The children all clung round the Captain, and could 
 hardly be persuaded to let him go. 
 
 When he was gone, Mrs. Fennel took the little ones to 
 their nest in an adjoining room. 
 
 Mr. Sewell approached his chair to that of Caplain Pen- 
 nel, and began talking to him in a tone of voico so low, thai 
 6* 
 
130 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 \ve have never been able to make out exactly what he was 
 Raying. 
 
 Whatever it might be, however, it seemed to give rise to 
 an anxious consultation. 
 
 " I did not think it advisable to tell any one this but 
 yourself, Captain 'Fennel. It is for you to decide, in view 
 3f the probabilities I have told you, what you will do." 
 
 " Well," said Zephaniah, " since you leave it to me r I 
 lay, let us keep him. It certainly seems a marked provi- 
 ience that he has been thrown upon us as he has, and the 
 Lord seemed to prepare a way for him in our hearts. I 
 am well able to afford it, and Mis' Fennel, she agrees to it, 
 and on the whole I don't think we 'd best go back on our 
 Bteps ; besides, our little Mara has thrived since he came 
 , under our roof. He is, to be sure, kind o' masterful, and 
 I shall have to take him off Mis' Fennel's hands before 
 long, and put him into the sloop. But, after all, there seems 
 to be the makin' of a man in him, and when we are called 
 away, why he '11 be as a brother to poor little Mara. Yes, 
 I think it's best as 'tis." 
 
 The minister, as he flitted across the bay by moonlight, 
 felt relieved of a burden. His secret was locked up as 
 safe in the breast of Zephaniah Fennel as it could be if 
 hifl owe. 
 
THE PEAKL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 1 31 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 ZEPHAXIAH FENNEL was what might be called a Hebrew 
 of the Hebrews. 
 
 New England, in her earlier days, founding her institu- 
 tions on the Hebrew Scriptures, bred better Jews than 
 Moses could, because she read Moses with the amendments 
 of Christ. 
 
 The state of society in some of the districts of Maine, in 
 these days, much resembled in its spirit that which Moses 
 labored to produce in ruder ages. It was entirely demo- 
 cratic, simple, grave, hearty, and sincere, solemn and 
 religious in its daily tone, and yet, as to all material good, 
 full of wholesome thrift and prosperity. Perhaps, taking 
 the average mass of the people, a more healthful and desir- 
 able state of society never existed. Its better specimens 
 had a simple Doric grandeur unsurpassed in any age. 
 
 The bringing up a child in this state of society was a 
 far more simple enterprise than in our modern times, when 
 the factitious wants and aspirations are so much more de- 
 i eloped. 
 
 Zephaniah Pennel was as high as anybody in the land 
 He owned not only the neat little schooner, " Brilliant," 
 with divers small fishing-boats, but also a snug farm, ad- 
 joining the brown house, together with some fresh, juicy 
 pasture-lots on neighboring islands, where he raised mutton, 
 nnsurpassed even by the English South-down, and wool. 
 
132 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 which furnished homespun to clothe his family on all ever/- 
 day occasions. 
 
 Mrs. Fennel, to be sure, had silks and satins, and flow- 
 ered India chintz, and even a Cashmere shawl, (he fruits of 
 some of her husband's earlier voyages, which were, how- 
 ever, carefully stowed away for occasions so high and mighty. 
 that they seldom saw tho light. 
 
 Not to wear lest things every day, was a maxim of 
 New England thrift, as little disputed as any verse of the 
 catechism ; and so Mrs. Fennel found the stuff gown of her 
 own dyeing and spinning so respectable for most purposes, 
 that it figured even in the meeting-house itself, except on 
 the very finest of Sundays, when heaven and earth seemed 
 alike propitious. 
 
 A person can well afford to wear homespun stuff to meet- 
 ing, who is buoyed up by a secret consciousness of an abun- 
 dance of fine things that could be worn, if one were so 
 disposed, and everybody respected Mrs. Fennel's homespun 
 the more, because they thought of the things she did n't 
 wear. 
 
 As to advantages of education, the island, like all other 
 New England districts, had its common school, where one 
 got the key of knowledge, for having learned to read, 
 write, and cipher, the young fellow of those regions com- 
 monly regarded himself as in possession of all that a man 
 needs, to help himself to any further acquisitions he might 
 iesire. 
 
 The boy3 then made fishing voyages to the Banks, anil 
 (hose who were so disposed took their books with them. If 
 A boy did not wish to be bored with study, there was nobody 
 to force him ; but if a bright one saw visions of future suc- 
 cess in life lying through the avenues of knowledge, he found 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 133 
 
 many a leisure hour to pore over his books, and work out 
 the problems of navigation directly over the element they 
 were meant to control. 
 
 Four years having glided by since the commencement of 
 our story, we find in the brown house of Zephaniah Fennel, 
 a tall, well-knit, handsome boy of ten years, who knows no 
 fear of wind or sea who can set you over from Orr's 
 Island to Harpswell, either in sail or row-boat, he thinks, ai 
 well as any man living who knows every rope of the 
 schooner " Brilliant," and fancies he could command it as 
 well as " father " himself and is supporting himself this 
 spring, during the tamer drudgeries of driving plough, and 
 dropping potatoes, with the glorious vision of being taken 
 this year on the annual trip to " the Banks," which comes 
 on after planting. He reads fluently, witness the " Robin- 
 son Crusoe," which never departs from under his pillow, and 
 Goldsmith's " History of Greece and Rome," which good 
 Mr. Sewell has lent him, and he often brings shrewd criti- 
 cisms on the character and course of Romulus or Alexander 
 into the common current of every-day life, in a way that 
 brings a smile over the grave face of Zephaniah, and makes 
 Mrs. Fennel think the boy certainly ought to be sent to 
 college. 
 
 As for Mara, she is now a child of seven, still adorned 
 with long golden curls still looking dreamily out of soft 
 hazel eyes into some unknown future not her own. She has 
 no dreams for herself they are all for Moses. 
 
 For his sake she has learned all the womanly little ac- 
 complishments which Mrs. Kittridge has dragooned into 
 Sally. She knits his mittens and his stockings, and hema 
 his pocket-handkerchiefs, and aspires to make his shirts all 
 herself. Whatever book Mose? read?, forthwith she aspires 
 
134 THE PEARL OF ORR'3 I 
 
 to rend too, and though three years younger, reads with a 
 far more precocious insight. 
 
 Her little form is slight and frail, and her cheek has a 
 clear transparent brilliancy quite different from the rounded 
 one of the boy ; she looks not exactly in ill health, but has 
 that sort of transparent appearance which one fancies might 
 be an attribute of fairies and sylphs. All her outward senses 
 Arc finer and more acute than his, and finer and more deli- 
 cate all the attributes of her mind. Those who contend 
 against giving woman the same education as man, do it on 
 the ground that it would make the woman unfeminine as 
 if Nature had done her work so slightly that it could be so 
 easily ravelled and knit over. In fact, there is a masculine 
 and a feminine element in all knowledge, and a man and a 
 woman put to the same study extract only what their nature 
 fi s them to see so that knowledge can be fully orbed only 
 when the two unite in the search and share the spoils. 
 
 When Moses was full of Romulus and Numa, Mara pon- 
 dered the story of the nymph Egeria sweet parable, in 
 which lies all we have been saying. 
 
 Her trust in him was boundless. He was a constant hero 
 in her eyes, and in her he found a steadfast believer as to 
 all possible feats and exploits to which he felt himself com- 
 petent, for the boy often had privately assured her that he 
 could command the Brilliant as well as father himself. 
 
 Spring had already come, loosing the chains of ice in all 
 the bays and coves round Harpswell, Orr's Island, Maquoit, 
 and Middle Bay. The magnificent spruces stood forth in 
 their gala-dresses, tipped on every point with vivid emerald ; 
 the silver firs exuded from their tender shoots the fragrance 
 of ripe pine-apple ; the white pines shot forth long weird 
 fingers at the end of their fringy bough? ; and even every 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 135 
 
 little mimic evergreen in the shadows at their feet was made 
 beautiful by the addition of a vivid border of green on the 
 sombre coloring of its last year's leaves. Arbutus, fragrant 
 with its clean, wholesome odors, gave forth its thousand 
 dewy pink blossoms, and the trailing Linnea borealis hung 
 its pendent twin bells round every mossy stump and old 
 r<r,k damp with green forest mould. The green and ver- 
 milion matting of the partridge-berry was impearled with 
 white velvet blossoms, the checkerberry hung forth a trans- 
 lucent bell under its varnished green leaf, and a thousand 
 more fairy bells, white or red. hung on blueberry and 
 huckleberry bushes. The little Pearl of Orr's Island had 
 wandered many an hour gathering bouquets of all these, to 
 fill the brown house with sweetness when her grandfather 
 and Moses should come in from work. 
 
 The love of flowers seemed to be one of her earliest char- 
 acteristics, and the young spring flowers of New England, in 
 their airy delicacy and fragility, were much like herself 
 and so strong seemed the affinity between them, that not 
 only Mrs. Pennel's best India china vases on the keeping- 
 room mantel were filled, but here stood a tumbler of scarlet 
 rock columbine, and there a bowl of blue and white violets, 
 and in another place a saucer of shell-tinted crow-foot, blue 
 liverwort, and white anemone, so that Zephaniah Fennel 
 was wont to say there was n't a drink of water to be got, for 
 Mara's flowers ; but he always said it with a smile that made 
 his weather-beaten, hard features look like a rock lit up by 
 a sunbeam. Little Mara was the pearl of the old seaman's 
 life, every finer particle of his nature came out in her con- 
 centrated and polished, and he often wondered at a creature 
 BO ethereal belonging to him as if down on some shaggy 
 lea-green rock an old peari oyster shouH muse and marvel 
 
136 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 n the strange silvery mystery of beauty that was growing 
 in the silence of his heart. 
 
 But May has passed ; the arbutus and the Linnea are 
 gone from the woods, and the pine tips have grown into 
 young shoots, which wilt at noon under a direct reflection 
 from sun and sea, and the blue sky has that metallic clear- 
 ness and brilliancy which distinguishes those regions, and 
 the planting is at last over, and this very morning Moses 
 is to set off in the Brilliant for his first voyage to the 
 Banks. 
 
 Glorious knight he ! the world all before him, and tho 
 blood of ten years racing and throbbing in his veins as he 
 talks knowingly of hooks, and sinkers, and bait, and lines, 
 and wears proudly the red flannel shirt which Mara had 
 just finished for him. 
 
 " How I do wish I were going with you ! " she says. " I 
 could do something, could n't I take care of your hooks, 
 or something?" 
 
 " Pooh 1 " said Moses, sublimely regarding her while he 
 settled the collar of his shirt, " you 're a girl and what 
 can girls do at sea ? you never like to catch fish it always 
 makes you cry to see 'em flop." 
 
 u Oh, yes, poor fish ! " said Mara, perplexed between her 
 sympathy for the fish and her desire for the glory of her 
 hero, which must be founded on their pain; "I can't help 
 feeling sorry when they gasp so." 
 
 " Well, and what do you suppose you would do when the 
 men are pulling up twenty and forty pounder ? " said Moses, 
 tfr iding sublimely. " Why, they flop so, they 'd knock you 
 over in a minute." 
 
 Do they ? Oh } Moses, do be careful. What if the; 
 ihould hurt you?" 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 137 
 
 a Hurt me ! " said Moses, laughing ; " that 's a good ona 
 I'd like to see a fish that could hurt me." 
 
 " Do hear that boy talk ! " said Mrs. Fennel to her hus* 
 band, tin they stood within their chamber-door. 
 
 " Yes, yes," said Captain Fennel, smiling ; " he 's full of 
 the matter. I believe he 'd take the command of the 
 schooner this morning if I 'd let him." 
 
 The Brilliant lay all this while courtesying on the wares, 
 tfhich kissed and whispered to the little coquettish craft 
 A fairer June morning had not risen on the shores that 
 w^ek ; the blue mirror of the ocean was all dotted over with 
 the tiny white sails of fishing-craft bound on the same 
 errand, and the breeze that was just crisping the waters 
 had the very spirit of energy and adventure in it. 
 
 Everything and everybody was now on board, and she 
 began to spread her fair wings, and slowly and gracefully 
 to retreat from the shore. 
 
 Little Moses stood on the deck, his black curls blowing in 
 the wind, and his large eyes dancing with excitement, his 
 clear olive complexion and glowing cheeks well set off by 
 his red shirt. 
 
 Mrs. Fennel stood with Mara on the shore to see them 
 go. The fair little golden-haired Ariadne shaded her eyes 
 with one arm, and stretched the other after her Theseus, till 
 the vessel grew smaller, and finally seemed to melt away 
 into the eternal blue. 
 
 Many be the wives and lovers that have watched those 
 little fishing-craft as they went gayly out like this, but have 
 waited long too long and seen them again no more 
 In night and fog they have gone down under the keel of 
 tome ocean packet or Indiaman, and sunk with brave hearts 
 and hands, like a bubble m the mighty waters. Yet Mra 
 
|38 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Fennel did not turn back to her house in apprehension of 
 this. Her husband had made so many voyages, and always 
 returned safely, that she confidently expected before long to 
 see them home again. 
 
 The next Sunday the seat of Zephaniah Fennel was 
 vacant in church. According to custom, a note was put up 
 asking prayers for his safe return, and then everybody knew 
 that he was gone to the Banks ; and as the roguish, hand- 
 some face of Moses was also missing, Miss Roxy whispered 
 to Miss Ruey, " There ! Captain Fennel 's took Moses on 
 his tirst voyage. We must contrive to call round on Mis' 
 Fennel afore long. She '11 be lonesome." 
 
 Sunday evening Mrs. Fennel was sitting pensively with 
 little Mara by the kitchen hearth, where they had been boil- 
 ing the tea-kettle for their solitary meal. They heard a 
 brisk step without, and soon Captain and Mrs. Kittridge 
 made their appearance. 
 
 " Good-evening, Mis' Fennel," said the Captain ; " I 's 
 a-tell?i' my good woman we must come down and see how 
 you 's a-getting along. It 's raly a work of necessity and 
 mercy proper for the Lord's day. Rather lonesome now the 
 Captain 's gone, a'n't ye ? Took little Moses, too, I see. 
 Was n't at meetin' to-day, so I says, Mis' Kittridge, we '11 
 just step down and chirk 'em up a little." 
 
 " I did n't really know how to come," said Mrs. Kittridge, 
 as she allowed Mrs. Fennel to take her bonnet ; " but Aunt 
 Roxy 's to our house now, and she said she 'd see to Sally. 
 So you 've let the boy go to the Banks ? He 's young, n'n\ 
 he, for that ? " 
 
 " Not a bit of it," said Captain Kittridge. " Why, I wa> 
 off to the Banks long afore I was his age, and a capital time 
 wo had of it, too. Golly! how them fish did bite! We 
 
THE PKARL OF OER'S ISLAND. 133 
 
 rtood up to our knees in fish before we M fished half an 
 hour." 
 
 Mara, who had always a shy affinity for the Captain, now 
 drew towards him and climbed on his knee. 
 
 " Did the wind blow very hard ? " she satf 
 
 " What, my little maid ? " 
 
 " Does the wind blow at the Banks ? " 
 
 "Why, yes, my little girl, that it does, sometimes; but 
 then there a'n't the least danger. Our craft ride out storms 
 like live creatures. I 've stood it out in gales that was tight 
 enough, I 'm sure. 'Member once I turned in 'tween twelve 
 and one, and had n't more 'n got asleep, afore I came clump 
 out of my berth, and found everything upside down. And 
 'stead of goin' up-stairs to get on deck, I had to go right 
 down. Fact was, that 'ere vessel jist turned clean over in 
 the water, and come right side up like a duck." 
 
 " Well, now, Cap'n, I iSbuld n't be tellin' such a story as 
 that," said his help-meet. 
 
 " Why, Polly, what do you know about it ? you never 
 was to sea. We did turn clear over, for I 'member I saw a 
 bunch of sea-weed big as a peck measure stickin' top of the 
 mast next day. Jist shows how safe them ar little fishing 
 craft is, for all they look like an egg-shell on the mighty 
 deep, as Parson Sewell calls it." 
 
 " I was very much pleased with Mr. Sewell's exercise in 
 prayer this morning," said Mrs. Kittridge; "it must hava 
 been a comfort to you, Mis' Pennel." 
 " It was, to be sure," said Mrs. Pennel. 
 a Puts me in mind of poor Mary Jane Simpson. Her 
 husband went out, you know, last June, and ha' n't been 
 beard of since. Mary Jane don't really know whether to 
 put on mourning or not." 
 
140 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Law ! I don't think Mary Jane need give up yet," said 
 the Captain. " 'Member one year I was out, we got blowed 
 dear up to Baffin's Bay, and got shut up in the ice, and had 
 to go ashore and live jist as we could among them Esqui- 
 maux. Did n't get home for a year. Old folks had clean 
 giv' us up. Don't need never despair of folks gone to sea, 
 for they's sure to turn up, first or last.'*' 
 
 "But I hope," said Mara, apprehensively, "that grand- 
 papa won't get blown up to Baffin's Bay. I 've seen that 
 on his chart, it 's a good ways." 
 
 " And then there 's them 'ere icebergs," said Mrs. Kit- 
 tridge ; " I 'm always 'fraid of running into them in the fog." 
 
 "Law!" said Captain Kittridge, "I've met 'em bigger 
 than all the colleges up to Brunswick, great white bears 
 on 'em, hungry as Time in the Primer. Once we came 
 hersmash on to one of 'em, and if the Flying Betsy had n't 
 been made of whalebone and injer-rubber, she 'd a-been 
 stove all to pieces. Them white bears, they was so hungry, 
 that they stood there with the water jist runnin' out of their 
 chops in a perfect stream." 
 
 " Oh, dear, dear," said Mara, with wide round eyes, " what 
 will Moses do if they get on the icebergs ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Kittridge, looking solemnly at the child 
 through the black bows of her spectacles, "we can truly 
 ay : 
 
 'Dangers stand thick through all the ground, 
 To push us to the tomb ; ' 
 
 ns the hymn-book says." 
 
 The kind-hearted Captain, feeling the fluttering heart of 
 little Mara, and seeing the tears start in her eyes, addressed 
 himself forthwith to consolation. 
 
 " Oh, never you mind, Mara," he said, " there won't notb 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 141 
 
 mg hurt 'em. Look at me. Why, I've been everywhere 
 on the face of the earth. I 've been on icebergs, and among 
 white bears and Indians, and seen storms that would blow 
 the very hair off your head, and here I am, dry and tight as 
 ever. You '11 see 'em back before long." 
 
 The cheerful laugh with which the Captain was wont to 
 chorus his sentences, sounded like the crackling of dry pine 
 wood on the social hearth. One would hardly hear it with- 
 out being lightened in heart ; and little Mara gazed at his 
 long, dry, ropy figure, and wrinkled thin face, as a sort of 
 monument of hope ; and his uproarious laugh, which Mrs. 
 Kiftridge sometimes ungraciously compared to "the crack- 
 ling of thorns under a pot," seemed to her the most delight- 
 ful thing in the world. 
 
 " Mary Jane was a-tellin' me," resumed Mrs. Kittridge, 
 " that when her husband had been out a month, she 
 dreamed she see him, and three other men, a-floatin' on 
 an iceberg." 
 
 " Laws," said Captain Kittridge, " that 's jist what my old 
 mother dreamed about me, and 't was true enough, too, till 
 we got off the ice on to the shore up in the Esquimaux 
 territory, as I was a-tellin'. So you tell Mary Jane she 
 need n't look out for a second husband yet, for that ar 
 dream 's a sartin sign he '11 be back." 
 
 " Cap'n Kittridge ! " said his help-meet, drawing herself 
 np, and giving him an austere glance over her spectacles ; 
 "how often must I tell you that there is subjects which 
 should n't be treated with levity ? " 
 
 " Who 's been a-treatin' of 'em with levity ? " said the 
 Captain. " I 'm sure I a'o't. Mary Jane 's good-lookin', 
 and there 's plenty of young fellows as sees it as well as me. 
 I declare she looked as pretty as any young gal when sho 
 
142 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 Hs up in the singers' seats to-day. Put me in mind of you, 
 Polly, when I first come home from the Injies." 
 
 " Oh, come now, Cap'n Kittridge ! we V gettin' too old 
 for that sort o' talk." 
 
 " We a'n't too old, be we, Mara ? " said the Captain, trot- 
 ling the little girl gayly on his knee ; " and we a'n't afraid 
 of icebergs and no sich, be we ? I tell you they 's a fine 
 eight of a bright day ; they has millions of steeples, all white 
 and glistering, like the New Jerusalem, and the white bears 
 have capital times trampin' round on 'em. Would n't little 
 Mara like a great, nice white bear to ride on, with his white 
 far, so soft and warm, and a saddle made of pearls, and a 
 gold bridle ? " 
 
 " You hav' n't seen any little girls ride so," said Mara, 
 doubtfully. 
 
 " I should n't wonder if I had ; but you see, Mis' Kittridge 
 there, she won't let me tell all I know," said the Captain, 
 sinking his voice to a confidential tone; "you jist wait till 
 we get alone." 
 
 "But, you are sure" said Mara, confidingly, in return, 
 " that white bears will be kind to Moses ? " 
 
 "Lord bless you, yes, child, the kindest critturs in the 
 world they be, if you only get the right side of 'era," said 
 the Captain. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! because," said Mara, " I know how good a 
 wolf was to Romulus and Remus once, and nursed them 
 when they were cast out to die. I read that in the Ro- 
 man history." 
 
 " Jist so," said the Captain, enchanted at this historic con- 
 firmation of his apocrypha. 
 
 " And so," said Mara, " if Moses should happen to get o 
 an iceberg, a bear might take care of him, you know." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 145 
 
 a Jist so, jist so," said the Captain ; " so don't you worry 
 your little curly head one bit. Some time when you come 
 down to see Sally, we '11 go down to the cove, and I '11 tell 
 jou lots of stories about chil'en that have been fetched up 
 uy white bears, jist like Romulus and what 's his name 
 there ? " 
 
 " Come, Mis' Kittridge," added the cheery Captain ; " you 
 and I must n't be keepin' the folks up till nine o'clock." 
 
 " Well now," said Mrs. Kittridge, in a doleful tone, as she 
 began to put on her bonnet, " Mis' Fennel, you must keep 
 up your spirits it 's one's duty to take cheerful views of 
 things. I'm sure many 's the night, when the Captain's 
 been gone to sea, I 've laid and shook in my bed, hearin* 
 the wind blow, and thinking what if I should be left a lone 
 widow." 
 
 u There 'd a-been a dozen fellows a- wan ting to get you in 
 six months, Polly," interposed the Captain. " Well, good- 
 night, Mis' Fennel ; there '11 be a splendid haul of fish at 
 the Banks this year, or there 's no truth in signs. Come, 
 my little Mara, got a kiss for the dry old daddy ? That 's 
 my good girl. Well, good-night, and the Lord bless you." 
 
 And so the cheery Captain took up his line of march 
 homeward, leaving little Mara's head full of dazzling vis- 
 ions of the land of romance to which Moses had gone. 
 
 She was yet on that shadowy boundary between the 
 dreamland of childhood and the real land of life ; so all 
 things looked to her quite possible and gentle white 
 bears, with warm, soft fur and pearl and gold saddles, 
 walked through her dreams, and the victorious curls of 
 Moses appeared, with his bright eyes and cheeks, ovei 
 glittering pinnacles of first in the ice-land. 
 
144 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 and July passed, and the lonely two lived a quiel 
 lite in the brown house. Everything was so still and fair 
 no sound but the coming and going tide, and the sway- 
 ing wind among the pine-trees, and the tick of the clock, 
 and the whirr of the little wheel as Mrs. Fennel sat spin- 
 ning in her door in the mild weather. 
 
 Mara read the Roman history through again, and began it 
 a third time, and read over and over again the stories and 
 prophecies that pleased her in the Bible, arid pondered the 
 wood-cuts and texts in a very old edition of ^sop's Fables, 
 and as she wandered in the woods, picking fragrant bay- 
 berries and gathering hemlock, checkerberry, and sassafras 
 to put in the beer which her grandmother brewed, she 
 mused on the things that she read till her little mind be- 
 came a tabernacle of solemn, quaint, dreamy forms where 
 old Judean kings and prophets, and Roman senators and 
 warriors, marched in and out in shadowy rounds. She in- 
 vented long dramas and conversations in which they per- 
 formed imaginary parts, and it would not have appeared to 
 the child in the least degree surprising either to have met 
 an angel in the woods, or to have formed an intimacy with 
 some talking wolf or bear, such as she read of in ^E sop's 
 Fables. 
 
 One day, as she was exploring the garret, she found in an 
 old barrel of cast-off rubbish a bit of reading which shf 
 begged of her grandmother for her own. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 145 
 
 It was the play of the " Tempest," torn from an old edi 
 rion of Shakspcare, and was in that delightfully fragmentary 
 condition which most particularly pleases children, because 
 they conceive a muiilated treasure thus found to be more 
 especially their own property something like a rare wild- 
 flower or sea-shell. The pleasure which thoughtful and im- 
 aginative children sometimes take in reading that which 
 lliey do not ana cannot fully comprehend, is one of tho 
 most common and curious phenomena of childhood. 
 
 And so little Mara would lie for hours stretched out on 
 the pebbly beach, with the broad open ocean before her and 
 the whispering pines and hemlocks behind her, and pore 
 over this poem, from which she collected dim, delightful 
 images of a lonely island, an old enchanter, a beautiful girl, 
 and a spirit not quite like those in the Bible, but a very 
 probable one to her mode of thinking. 
 
 As for old Caliban, she fancied him with a face much like 
 that of a huge skate-fish she had once seen drawn ashore in 
 one of her grandfather's nets, and then there was the beau- 
 tiful young Prince Ferdinand, much like what Moses would 
 be when he was grown up and how glad she would be to 
 pile up his wood for him, if any old enchanter should set 
 him to work ! 
 
 One attribute of the child was a peculiar sharaefacedness 
 and shyness about her inner thoughts, and therefore the 
 wonder that this new treasure excited, the host of sur- 
 mises and dreams to which it gave rise, were never men- 
 tioned to anybody. That it was all of it as much authentic 
 fact as the Roman history, she did not doubt, but whether it 
 had happened on Orr's Island or some of the neighboring 
 pnes, she had not exactly made up her mind. 
 
 She resolved at her earliest leisure to consult Captain 
 7 
 
146 THE PfcARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Kittridgc on the subject, wisely considering that it much 
 resembled some of his fishy and aquatic experiences. 
 
 Some of the little songs fixed themselves in her memory, 
 and she would hum them as she wandered up and down the 
 beach. 
 
 " Come unto these yellow sands 
 
 And then take hands, 
 
 Courtesied when you have and kissed 
 
 (The wild waves wist), 
 
 Foot it featly here and there, 
 
 And sweet sprites the burden bear." 
 
 And another which pleased her still more : 
 
 "Full fathom five thy father lies; 
 
 Of his bones are coral made, 
 Those are pearls that were his eyes; 
 
 Nothing of him that can fade 
 But doth suffer a sea change 
 Into something rich and strange ; 
 Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell 
 Hark, I hear them ding, dong, bell." 
 
 These words she pondered very long, gravely revolving 
 in her little head whether they described the usual course of 
 things in the mysterious under-world that lay beneath that 
 blue spangled floor of the sea whether everybody's eyes 
 changed to pearl, and their bones to coral, if they sunk down 
 there and whether the sea-nymphs spoken of were the 
 same as the mermaids that Captain Kittridge had told of. 
 Had he not said that the bell rung for church of a Sunday 
 morning down under the waters ? 
 
 Mara vividly remembered the scene on the sea-beach, the 
 rinding ef little Moses and his mother, the dream of the pale 
 lady that seemed to bring him to her ; and not one of the 
 lonversations that had transpired before her among differ 
 ent gossips had been lost on her quiet, listening little earg 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 14V 
 
 These pale, still children that play without making any 
 noise, are deep wells into which drop many things which lie 
 long and quietly on the bottom, and come up in after years 
 whole and new, when everybody else has forgotten them. 
 
 So she had heard surmises as to the remaining crew of 
 that unfortunate ship where, perhaps, Moses had a father. 
 And sometimes she wondered if he were lying fathoms deep 
 with sea-nymphs ringing his knell, and whether Moses ever 
 thought about him ; and yet she could no more have asked 
 him a question about it than if she had been born dumb. 
 She decided that she should never show him this poetry 
 it might make him feel unhappy. 
 
 One bright aAernoon, when the sea lay all dead asleep, and 
 the long, steady respiration of its tides scarcely disturbed 
 the glassy tranquillity of its bosom, Mrs. Fennel sat at her 
 kitchen-door spinning, when Captain Kittridge appeared. 
 
 " Good-afternoon, Mis' Fennel ; how ye gettin* along ? " 
 
 " Oh, pretty well, Captain ; won't you walk in and have 
 a glass of beer ? " 
 
 " Well, thank you," said the Captain, raising his hat and 
 wiping his forehead, " I be pretty dry, it 's a fact." 
 
 Mrs. Fennel hastened to a cask which was kept standing 
 in a corner of the kitchen, and drew from thence a mug of 
 her own home-brewed, fragrant with the smell of juniper, 
 hemlock, and wintergreen, which she presented to the Cap- 
 .ain, who sat down in the door-way and discussed it in lei- 
 surely sips. 
 
 " Wai', s'pose it 's most time to be lookin' for cm home, 
 iVt it ? " he said. 
 
 "I am lockin' every day," said Mrs. Fennel, involuntarily 
 glancing upward at the sea. 
 
 At the word appeared the vision oi little Mam, rlio rose 
 
148 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 Dp like a spirit from a dusky corner, where she had been 
 stooping over her reading. 
 
 " Why, little Mara." said tl^e Captain, " you ris up like a 
 ghost all of a sudden. I thpught you 's out to play. I como 
 down a-purpose arter you. Mis' Kittridge has gone shoppin' 
 up to Brunswick, and left Sally a ' stent ' to do ; and I prom- 
 ised her if she 'd clap to and do it quick, I 'd go up and fetch 
 you down, and we 'd have a play in the cove." 
 
 Mara's eyes brightened, as they always did at this pros- 
 pect, and Mrs. Pennel said, " Well, I 'm glad to have the 
 child go ; she seems so kind o' still and lonesome since 
 Moses went away ; really one feels as if that boy took all 
 the noise there was with him. I get tired myself sometimes 
 hearing the clock tick. Mara, when she 's alone, takes to 
 her book more than 's good for a child." 
 
 " She does, does she ? Well, we '11 see about that. Come, 
 little Mara, get on your sun-bonnet. Sally 's sewin' fast aa 
 ever she can, and we Y goin' to dig some clams, and make a 
 fire, and have a chowder ; that '11 be nice, won't it ? Don't 
 you want to come, too, Mis' Pennel ? " 
 
 " Oh, thank you, Captain, but I 've got so many things on 
 hand to do afore they come home, I don't really think I can. 
 I '11 trust Mara to you any day." 
 
 Mara had run into her own little room and secured her 
 precious fragment of treasure, which she wrapped up care- 
 fully in her handkerchief, resolving to enlighten Sally with 
 the story, and to consult the Captain on any nice points of 
 criticism. Arrived at the cove, they found Sally already 
 there in advance of them, clapping her hands and dancing in 
 manner which made her black elf-locks fly like those of a 
 distracted creature. 
 
 " Now, Sally," said the Captain, imitating, in a humfcla 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 149 
 
 way, his wife *a manner, " are you sure you Ve finished youi 
 work well?" 
 
 " Yos, father, every stitch on V 
 
 " And stuck in your needle, and folded it up, and put it in 
 the drawer, and put away your thimble, and shet the drawer, 
 and all the rest on 't ? " said the Captain. 
 
 " Yes, father," said Sally, gleefully, " I Ve done everything 
 I could think of." 
 
 " 'Cause you know your ma '11 be arter ye, if you don't 
 leave everything straight." 
 
 " Oh, never you fear, father, I Ve done it all half an hour 
 Rgo, and I've found the most capital bed of clams just lound 
 the point here ; and you take care of Mara there, and make 
 up a fire while I dig 'em. If she comes, she '11 be sure to 
 wet her shoes, or spoil her frock, or something." 
 
 " Wai', she likes no better fun now," said the Captain, 
 watching Sally, as she disappeared round the rock with a 
 bright tin pan. 
 
 He then proceeded to construct an extemporary fireplace 
 of loose stones, and to put together chips and shavings for 
 the fire, in which work little Mara eagerly assisted ; but 
 the fire was crackling and burning cheerily long before Sally 
 appeared with her clams, and so the Captain, with a pile of 
 hemlock boughs by his side, sat on a stone feeding the fire 
 leisurely from time to time with crackling boughs. Now 
 was the time for Mara to make her inquiries ; her heart 
 beat, she knew not why, for she was full of those little ti- 
 midities and shames that so often embarrass children in their 
 attempts to get at the meanings of things in this great world, 
 where they are such ignorant spectators. 
 
 "Captain Kittridge," she said at last, u do the irermaMi 
 toll any bells fa r people when they are drowned ? " 
 
150 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 Now the Captain had never been known to indicate th 
 least ignorance on any subject in heaven or earth, which 
 any one wished his opinion on ; he therefore leisurely poked 
 another great crackling bough of green hemlock into the 
 fire, and, Yankee-like, answered one question by asking 
 another, " What put that into your curly pate ? " he saiL 
 
 " A book I Ve been reading says they do, that is sea- 
 nymphs do. A'n't sea-nymphs and mermaids the same 
 thing ? " 
 
 " Wai*, I guess they be, pretty much," said the Captain, 
 rubbing down his pantaloons ; " yes, they be," he added, after 
 reflection. 
 
 " And when people are drowned, how long does it take 
 for their bones to turn into coral, and their eyes into pearl ? " 
 said little Mara. 
 
 " Well, that depends upon circumstances," said the Cap- 
 tain, who was n't going to be posed ; " but let me jist see 
 your book you 've been reading these things out of." 
 
 " I found it in a barrel up garret, and grandma gave it to 
 me," said Mara, unrolling her handkerchief; " it 's a beautiful 
 book, it tells about an island, and there was an old en- 
 chanter lived on it, an3 he had one daughter, and there was 
 a spirit they called Ariel, whom a wicked old witch fastened 
 in a split of a pine-tree, till the enchanter got him out. He 
 was a beautiful spirit, and rode in the curled clouds and hung 
 in flowers, because he could make himself big or little, 
 you ses." 
 
 " Ah, yes, I see, to be sure," said the Captain, nodding his 
 head. 
 
 " Well, that about sea-nymphs ringing his knell is here," 
 Mara added, beginning to read the passage with wide, di 
 lated eyes and great emphasis. " You see," she went on. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S 1SLAXD. 151 
 
 ipeaking very fast, ' this enchanter had been a prince, and 
 a wicked brother had contrived to send him to sea with his 
 poor little daughter, in a ship so leaky that the very rats had 
 left it." 
 
 "Bad business that!" said the Captain, attentively. 
 
 " Well," said Mara, " they got cast ashore on this desolate 
 island, where they lived together. But once, when a >hip 
 was going by on the sea that had his wicked brother and hi 
 isoii a real good, handsome young prince in it, why then 
 he made a storm by magic arts." 
 
 " Jist so," said the Captain ; " that 's been often done, to 
 my sartin knowledge." 
 
 " And he made the ship be wrecked and all the people 
 thrown ashore, but there was n't any of 'em drowned, and this 
 handsome prince heard Ariel singing this song about his 
 father, and it made him think he was dead." 
 
 " Well, what became of 'em ? " interposed Sally, who had 
 come up with her pan of clams in time to hear this story, to 
 which she had listened with breathless interest. 
 
 " Oh, the beautiful young prince married the beautiful 
 young lady," said Mara. 
 
 " Wai'," said the Captain, who by this time had found his 
 soundings ; " that you 've been a-tellin* is what they call a 
 play, and I 've seen 'em act it at a theatre, when I was to 
 Liverpool once. I know all about it. Shakspeare wrote 
 it, and he 's a great English poet." 
 
 " Biu did it ever happen ?" said Mara, trembling between 
 hope arul fear. " Is it like the Bible and Roman history?" 
 
 " Why, no," said Captain Ki^ridge, ft *iot exactly ; but 
 things jist like it, you know. Mermaids and sich is com- 
 mon in foreign parts, and they has funerals for drowned 
 jailors. 'Member once when we was sailing near the Ber- 
 
152 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 mudas by a reef where the Lively Fanny went down, and 1 
 heard a kind o' ding-dongin', and the waters there is cleat 
 as the sky, and I looked down and see the coral 'all a- 
 growin', and the sea-plants a-wavin' as handsome as a pic- 
 lur', and the mermaids they was a-singin'. It was beautiful , 
 they sung kind o' mournful ; and Jack Hubbard, he would 
 have it they was a-singin' for the poor fellows that was 
 a-lyin' there round under the sea-w'eed." 
 
 " But," said Mara, " did you ever see an enchanter that 
 could make storms ? " 
 
 " Wai', there be witches and conjurers that make storms. 
 'Member once when we was crossin* the line, about twelve 
 o'clock at night, there- was an old man with a long white 
 beard that shone like silver, came and stood at the mast-head, 
 and he had a pitchfork in one hand, and a lantern in the 
 other, and there was great balls of fire as big as my fist 
 came out all round in the rigging. And I '11 tell you if we 
 did n't get a blow that ar night ! I thought to my soul we 
 should all go to the bottom." 
 
 "Why," said Mara, her eyes staring with excitement, 
 "that was just like this shipwreck ; and 'twas Ariel made 
 those balls of fire ; he says so ; he said he * flamed amaze- 
 ment' all over the ship." 
 
 "I've heard Miss Roxy tell about witches that made 
 storms," said Sally. 
 
 The Captain leisurely proceeded to open the clams, sepa- 
 rating from the shells the contents, which he threw into a 
 pan, meanwhile placing a black pot over the lire in which 
 he had previously arranged certain slices of salt pork, which 
 loon began frizzling in the heat. 
 
 " Now, Sally, you peel them potatoes, and mind you slico 
 em thin," he said, and Sally soon was busy with her work. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 153 
 
 'Yes," said the Captain, going on with his part of the 
 arrangement, " there was old Polly Twichell, that lived in 
 that ar old tumble-down house on Mure P'int ; people used 
 to say she brewed storms, and went to sea in a sieve." 
 
 " Went in a sieve ! " said both children ; " why a sieve 
 would n't swim ! " 
 
 " No more it would n't, in any Christian way," said the 
 Captain ; " but that was to show what a great witch she 
 was." 
 
 " Bet this was a good enchanter," said Mara, " and he did 
 it all by a book and a rod." 
 
 " Yes, yes," said the Captain ; " that ar 's the gen'l way 
 magicians do, ever since Moses' time in Egypt. 'Member 
 once I was to Alexandria, in Egypt, and I saw a magician 
 there that could jist see everything you ever did in your life 
 in a drop of ink that he held in his hand." 
 
 He could, father ! " 
 
 " To be sure he could ! told me all about the old folks at 
 home ; and described our house as natural as if he 'd a-been 
 there. He used to carry snakes round with him, a kind 
 so p'ison that it was certain death to have 'em bite you ; but 
 he played with 'em as if they was kittens." 
 
 " Well," said Mara, " my enchanter was a king ; and 
 when he got through all he wanted, and got his daughter 
 married to the beautiful young prince, he said he would 
 break his staff', and deeper than plummet sounded he would 
 "ury his book.'* 
 
 "It was pretty much the best thing he could do," said the 
 Captain, " because the Bible is agin sudi things." 
 
 " Is it ? '' said Mara ; " why, he was a real good man." 
 
 " Oh, well, you know, we all on us does what a'n't quite 
 right sometimes, when we gets pushed up," said tho Captain, 
 7* 
 
154 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 who now began arranging the clams and sliced potatoes in 
 alternate layers with sea-biscuit, strewing in salt and pepper 
 as he went on ; and, in a few moments, a smell, fragrant to 
 hungry senses, began to steam upward, and Sally began 
 washing and preparing some mammoth clam-shells, to sei ve 
 as ladles and plates for the future chowder. 
 
 Mara, who sat with her morsel of a book in her lap, 
 seemed deeply pondering the past conversation. At last she 
 said, " What did you mean by saying you 'd seen 'em act 
 that at a theatre ? " 
 
 " Why, they make it all seem real ; and they have a ship- 
 wreck, and you see it all jist right afore your eyes." 
 
 "And the Enchanter, and Ariel, and Caliban, and all?" 
 said Mara. 
 
 "Yes, all on 't, plain as printing." 
 
 " Why, that is by magic, a'n't it ?" said Mara. 
 
 " No ; they hes ways to jist make it up ; but," added 
 the Captain, " Sally, you need n't say nothin' to your ma 
 'bout the theatre, 'cause she would n't think I 's fit to go to 
 meetin' for six months arter, if she heard on 't." 
 
 "Why, a'n't theatres good?" said Sally. 
 
 " Wai, there 's a middlin' sight o' bad things in 'em," said 
 the Captain, " that I must say ; but as long as folks is folks, 
 why, they will be folksy ; but there's never any makin' 
 women folk understand about them ar things." 
 
 " I am sorry they are bad," said Mara ; " I want to see 
 them." 
 
 " Wai', Aval'," said the Captain, " on the hull I 've seen 
 ivial things a good deal more wonderful than all their shows, 
 and they ha'n't no make-b'lieve to 'em but theatres is 
 takin' arter all. But, Sally, mind you don't say nothin' to 
 Mis' Kittridge." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 151 
 
 A few moments more and all discussion was lost in prep- 
 arations for the meal, and each one receiving a portion of 
 the savory stew in a large shell, made a spoon of a small 
 cockle, and with some slices of bread and butter, the even- 
 ing meal went off merrily. The sun was sloping toward the 
 ocean ; the wide blue floor was bedropped here nd there 
 with rosy shadows of sailing clouds. Suddenly the Cap* 
 tain sprang up, calling out, 
 
 " Sure as I 'm alive, there they be ! " 
 
 " Who ? " exclaimed the children. 
 
 " Why, Captain Fennel and Moses ; don't you see ? " 
 
 And, in fact, on the outer circle of the horizon came drift- 
 ing a line of small white-breasted vessels, looking like so 
 many doves. 
 
 " Them 's 'em," said ti,c Captain, while Mara danced for 
 
 joy- 
 
 " How soon will they be here ? " . 
 " Afore long," said the Captain ; " so, Mara, I guess you '11 
 want to be getting hum." 
 
156 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MRS. FENNEL, too, had seen the white, dove-like cloud 
 on the horizon, and had hurried to make biscuits, and con- 
 duct other culinary preparations which should welcome lha 
 wanderers home. 
 
 The sun was just dipping into the great blue sea a 
 round ball of fire and sending long, slanting tracks of 
 light across the top of each wave, when a boat was moored 
 at the beach, and the minister sprang out, not in his suit 
 of ceremony, but attired in fisherman's garb. 
 
 " Good-afternoon, Mrs. Pennel," he said. " I was out 
 fishing, and T thought I saw your husband's schooner in the 
 distance. I thought I 'd come and tell you." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Sewell. I thought I saw it, but I was 
 not certain. Do come in ; the Captain would be delighted 
 to see you here." 
 
 " We miss your husband in our meetings," said Mr. Stw- 
 ell ; " it will be good news for us all when he comes home ; 
 he is one of those I depend on to help me preach." 
 
 " I 'm sure you don't preach to anybody who enjoys it 
 more," said Mrs. Pennel. "He often tells me that the 
 greates: trouble about his voyages to the Banks is that he 
 loses sc many sanctuary privileges ; though he always keeps 
 Sunday on his ship, and reads and sings his psalms ; but, he 
 gays, after all, there 's nothing like going to Mount Zion," 
 
 " And little Moses has gone on his first voyage ? " said 
 'Jie minister. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 157 
 
 " Yes, indeed ; the child has been teasing to go for more 
 than a year. Finally the Cap'n told him if he 'd be faithful 
 in the ploughing and planting he should go. You see, he 's 
 rather unsteady, and apt to be off after other things, very 
 different from Mara. Whatever you give her to do sho 
 alwa) 8 keeps at it till it 's done." 
 
 " And pray, where is the little lady ? " said the minister j 
 u is she gone ? " 
 
 "Well, Cap'n Kittridge came in this afternoon to lake her 
 down to see Sally. The Cap'n 's always so fond of Mara, 
 and she has always taken to him ever since she was a baby." 
 
 " The Captain is a curious creature," said the minister, 
 smiling. 
 
 Mrs. Fennel smiled also ; and it is to be remarked that 
 nobody ever mentioned the poor Captain's name without the 
 same curious smile. 
 
 " The Cap'n is a good-hearted, obliging creature," said 
 Mrs. Fennel, " and a master-hand for telling stories to the 
 children." 
 
 " Yes, a perfect ' Arabian Nights' Entertainment,' " said 
 Mr. Sewell. 
 
 "Well, I really believe the Cap'n believes his own 
 stories," said Mrs. Fennel ; " he always seems to, and cer- 
 tainly a more obliging man and a kinder neighbor could n't 
 be. He has been in and out almost every day since I 've 
 been alone, to see if I wanted anything. He would insist 
 on chopping wood and splitting kindlings for me, though I 
 told him the Cap'n and Moses had left a plenty to last till 
 Ihey came home." 
 
 At this moment the subject of their conversation appeared 
 striding along the beach, with a large, red lobster in one 
 Uand, while with the other he held little Mara upon his 
 
158 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 shoulder, she the while clapping her hands and singing men 
 rily, as she saw the Brilliant out on the open blue sea, its 
 white sails looking of a rosy purple in the evening light, 
 careering gayly homeward. 
 
 " There is Captain Kittridge this very minute," said Mrs. 
 PennsI, setting down a teacup she had been wiping, and 
 going to the door. 
 
 *' Good-evening, Mis' Fennel," said the Captain. " I 
 s'pose you see your folks are comin'. I brought down one 
 of these 'ere ready b'iled, 'cause I thought it might make 
 01 1 your supper." 
 
 " Thank you, Captain ; you must stay and take some with 
 us." 
 
 " Wai', me and the children have pooty much done our 
 supper," said the Captain. "We made a real fust-rate 
 chowder down there to the cove ; but I '11 jist stay and see 
 what the Cap'n's luck is. Massy ! " he added, as he looked 
 in at the door, " if you ha'n't got the minister there ! Wai', 
 now, I come jist as I be," he added, with a glance down at 
 his clothes. 
 
 " Never mind, Captain," said Mr. Sewell ; " I 'm in my 
 fishing-clothes, so we're even." 
 
 As to little Mara, she had run down to the beach, and 
 stood so near the sea, that every dash of the tide-wave forced 
 her little feet to tread an inch backward, stretching out her 
 hands eagerly toward the schooner, which was standing 
 straight toward the small wharf, not far from their door. 
 Already she could see on deck figures moving about, and 
 her sharp little eyes made out a small personage in a red 
 shirt that was among the most active. Soon all the figures 
 grew distinct, and she could see her grandfather's gray head, 
 luul alert, active form, and could see, by the signs he made, 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 159 
 
 that he had perceived the little blowy figure that stood, with, 
 hair streaming in the win:.], like some flower bent seaward. 
 
 And now they are come nearer, and Moses shouts and 
 dances on the deck, and the Captain and Mrs. Fennel come 
 running from the house down to the shore, and a few min- 
 utes more, and all are landed safe and sound, and little Mara 
 is carried up to the house in her grandfather's arms, while 
 Captain Kittridge stops to have a few moments' gossip with 
 Ben Ilalliday and Tom Scranton before they go to their own 
 resting-places. 
 
 Meanwhile Moses loses not a moment in boasting of his 
 heroic exploits to Mara. 
 
 " Oh, Mara ! you 've no idea what times we Ve had ! I 
 can fish equal to any of 'em, and I can take in sail and tend 
 the helm like anything, and I know all the names of every- 
 thing ; and you ought to have seen us catch fish ! Why, 
 they bit just as fast as we could throw ; and it was just 
 throw and bite, throw and bite, throw and bite ; and 
 my hands got blistered pulling in, but I did n't mind it, I 
 was determined no one should beat me." 
 
 " Oh ! did you blister your hands ? " said Mara, pitifully. 
 
 " Oh, to be sure ! Now, you girls think that 's a dreadful 
 thing, but we men don't mind it. My hands are getting so 
 hard, you 've no idea. And, Mara, we caught a great 
 shark." 
 
 " A shark ! oh, how dreadful ! Is n't he dangerous ? " 
 
 " Dangerous ! I guess not. We served him out, I tell 
 you. He '11 never eat any more people, I tell you, the old 
 wretch ! " 
 
 "But, poor shark, it isn't h_*s fault that he eats people. 
 He was made so," said Mara, unconsciously touching a deep 
 theological mystery. 
 
160 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Well, I don't know but he was," said Moses ; " but 
 eharks that we catch never eat any more, I'll bet you." 
 
 " Oh, Moses, did you see any icebergs ? " 
 
 " Icebergs ! yes ; we passed right by one, a real grand 
 one." 
 
 " "Were there any bears on it ? " 
 
 " Bears ! No ; we did n't see any." 
 
 " Captain Kittridge says there are white bears live on 
 em." 
 
 " Ot, Captain Kittridge," said Moses, with a toss of su- 
 perb contempt; "if you're going to believe all he says, 
 you 've got your hands full." 
 
 " Why, Moses, you don't think he tells lies ? " said Mara, 
 the tears actually starting in her eyes. " I think he is real 
 good, and tells nothing but the truth." 
 
 "Well, well, you are young yet," said Moses, turning 
 away with an air of easy grandeur, " and only a girl be- 
 sides," he added. 
 
 Mara was nettled at this speech. First, it pained her to 
 have her child's faith shaken in anything, and particularly in 
 her good old friend, the Captain ; and next, she felt, with 
 more force than ever she did before, the continual disparag- 
 ing tone in which Moses spoke of her girlhood. 
 
 " I 'm sure," she said to herself, " he ought n't to feel so 
 about girls and women. There was Deborah was a prophet- 
 ess, and judged Israel ; and there was Egeria, she taught 
 Numa Pompilius all his wisdom." 
 
 But it was not the little maiden's way to speak when any- 
 thing thwarted or hurt her, but rather to fold all her feelings 
 and thoughts inward, as some insects, with fine gauzy wing^ 
 flraw them under a coat of horny concealment 
 
 Somehow, there was a shivering sense of disappointmeni 
 
THE PEARL OF OKII'S ISLAND. 161 
 
 In all tlii;! meeting with Moses. She had dwelt upon it, and 
 landed so much, and had so many things to say to him ; and 
 he had come home so self-absorbed and glorious, and seemed 
 to have had so little need of or thought for her, that dhe felt 
 R cold, sad sinking at her heart ; and walking away A ery 
 still and white, sat down demurely by her grandfather's knee, 
 
 " Well, so my little girl is glad grandfather 's come," ho 
 Baid, lifting her fondly in his arms, and putting her golden" 
 head under his coat, as he had been wont to do from in- 
 fancy ; " grandpa thought a great deal about his little Mara." 
 
 The small heart swelled against his. Kind, faithful old 
 grandpa ! how much more he thought about her than Mo- 
 ses; and yet she had thought so much of Moses. 
 
 And there he sat, this same ungrateful Moses, bright-eyed 
 and rosy-cheeked, full of talk and gayety, full of energy and 
 vigor, as ignorant as possible of the wound he had given to 
 the little loving heart that was silently brooding under her 
 grandfather's butternut-colored sea-coat. Not only was he 
 ignorant, but he had not even those conditions within him 
 self which made knowledge possible. 
 
 All that there was developed of him, at present, was a 
 fund of energy, self-esteem, hope, courage, and daring, the 
 love of action, life, and adventure ; his life was in the out- 
 ward and present, not in the inward and reflective ; he was 
 a true ten-year old boy, in its healthiest and most animal 
 perfection. What she was, the small pearl with the golden 
 hair, with her frail and high-strung organization, her sen- 
 sitive nerves, her half-spiritual fibres, her ponderings, and 
 marvels, and dreams, her power of love, and yearning for 
 self-devotion, our readers may, perhaps, have seen. But if 
 ever two children, .or two grown people, thus organized, are 
 thrown into intimate relations, it follows, from the very laws 
 
162 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 of their being, that one mus. hurt the other, simply by being 
 itself; one must always hunger for what the other has not 
 to give. 
 
 It was a merry meal, however, when they all sat down to 
 the tea-table once more, and Mara by her grandfather's side, 
 who often stopped what he was saying to stroke her head 
 fondly. Moses bore a more prominent part in the conversa- 
 tion than he had been wont to do before this voyage, and all 
 seemed to listen to him with a kind of indulgence elders 
 often accord to a handsome, manly boy, in the first flush of 
 some successful enterprise. 
 
 That ignorant confidence in one's self and one's future, 
 which comes in life's first dawn, has a sort of mournful 
 charm in experienced eyes, who know how much it all 
 amounts to. 
 
 Gradually, little Mara quieted herself with listening to 
 and admiring him. 
 
 It is not comfortable to have any heart-quarrel with one's 
 cherished idol, and everything of the feminine nature, there- 
 fore, can speedily find fifty good reasons for seeing one's self 
 in the wrong and one's graven image in the right ; and little 
 Mara soon had said to herself, without words, that, of course, 
 Moses could n't be expected to think as much of her as she 
 of him. He was handsomer, cleverer, and had a thousand 
 other things to do and to think of he was a boy, in short, 
 nnd going to be a glorious man and sail all over the world, 
 while she could only hem handkerchiefs and knit stockings, 
 and sit at home and wait for him to come back. This was 
 fcbout the resume of life as it appeared to the little one, who 
 went on from the moment worshipping her image with more 
 undivided idolatry than ever, hoping that by and by b 
 vould th:n> jaore of her. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 165 
 
 Mr. Seweh appeared to study Moses carefully and thought- 
 fully, and encouraged the wild, gleeful frankmjss which he 
 had brought home from his first voyage, as a knowing jockey 
 tries the paces of a high-mettled colt. 
 
 " Did you get any time to read ? " he interposed once, 
 when the boy stopped in his account of their adventures. 
 
 "No, sir," said Moses; "at least," he added, blushing 
 very deeply, " I did n't feel like reading. I had so much to 
 do, and there was so much to see." 
 
 " It 's all new to him now," said Captain Fennel ; " but 
 when he comes to being, as I 've been, day after day, with 
 nothing but sea and sky, he '11 be glad of a book, just to 
 break the sameness." 
 
 "Laws, yes," said Captain Kittridge; "sailor's life a'n't 
 all apple-pie, as it seems when a boy first goes on a summer 
 trip with his daddy not by no manner o' means." 
 
 " But," said Mara, blushing and looking very eagerly at 
 Mr. Sewell, " Moses has read a great deal. He read the 
 Roman and the Grecian history through before he went 
 away, and knows all about them." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Mr. Sewell, turning with an amused look 
 towards the tiny little champion ; "do you read them, too, 
 my little maid ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed," said Mara, her eyes kindling ; " I have 
 read them a great deal since Moses went away them 
 and the Bible." 
 
 Mara did not dare to name her new-found treasure 
 there was something so mysterious about that, that she could 
 oot venture to produce k, except on the score et extreme 
 intimacy. 
 
 " Come, sit by me, little Mara," said the minister, putting 
 3Ut his hand ; " 3'ou and I must be friends, I see." 
 
164 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Mr. Sewell had a certain something of mesmeric powei 
 in his eyes which children seldom resisted ; and with a 
 shrinking movement, as if both attracted and repelled, the 
 little girl got upon his knee. 
 
 " So you like the Bible and Roman history ? " he said to 
 her, making a little aside for her, while a brisk conversation 
 was going on between Captain Kittridge and Captain Fennel 
 on the fishing bounty for the year. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Mara, blushing in a very guilty way. 
 
 " And which do you like the best ? " 
 
 ;< I don't know, sir ; I sometimes think it is the one, and 
 sometimes the other." 
 
 " Well, what pleases you in the Roman history ? " 
 
 " Oh, I like that about Quintus Curtius." 
 
 " Quintus Curtius ? " said Mr. Sewell, pretending not to 
 remember. 
 
 " Oh, don't you remember him ? why, there was a great 
 gulf opened in the Forum, and the Augurs said that the 
 country would not be saved unless some one would offer 
 himself up for it, and so he jumped right in, all on horse- 
 back. I think that was grand. I should like to have dono 
 that," said little Mara, her eyes blazing out with a kind of 
 starry light which they had when she was excited. 
 
 " And how would you have liked it, if you had been a 
 Roman girl, and Moses were Quintus Curtius ? would you 
 like to have him give himself up for the good of the 
 country ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! " said Mara, instinctively shuddering. 
 
 " Don't you think it would be very grand of him ? j; 
 
 " Oh, yes, sir." 
 
 " And should n't we wish our friends to do what is brave 
 and grand ? " 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 165 
 
 " Yes, sir ; but then," she added, " it would be so dread- 
 ful never to see him any more," and a large tear rolled from 
 the great soft eyes and fell on the minister's hand. 
 
 " Come, come," thought Mr. Sevvell, " this sort of experi- 
 menting is too bad too much nerve here, too much soli- 
 tude, too much pine-whispering and sea-dashing are going to 
 Hie making up of this little piece of workmanship." 
 
 * Tell me," he said, motioning Moses to sit by him, " how 
 you like the Roman history." 
 
 " I like it first-rate," said Moses. " The Romans were 
 such smashers, and beat everybody nobody could stand 
 against them ; and I like Alexander, too I think he was 
 splendid." 
 
 " True boy," said Mr. Sewell to himself, " unreflecting 
 brother of the wind and the sea, and all that is vigorous and 
 active no precocious development of the moral here." 
 
 " Now you have come," said Mr. Sewell, " I will lend 
 you another book." 
 
 " Thank you, sir ; I love to read them when I 'm at homo. 
 it 's so still here. I should be dull if I did n't." 
 
 Mara's eyes looked eagerly attentive. Mr. Sewell noticed 
 their hungry look when a book was spoken of. 
 
 " And you must read it, too, my little girl," he said. 
 
 " Thank you, sir," said Mara ; " I always want to read 
 everything Moses does." 
 
 " What book is it ? " said Moses. 
 
 " It is called Plutarch's * Lives,' " said the minister ; " it 
 bus more particular accounts of the men you read about in 
 history." 
 
 " Are there any lives of women ? " said Mara. 
 
 "No, my dear," said Mr. Sewell; "in the old times, 
 women did not get their lives written, though J don't dcuU* 
 
166 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 many of them were much better worth writing than the 
 men's." 
 
 " I should like to be a great general," said Moses, with a 
 toss of his head. 
 
 " The way to be great lies through books, now, and not 
 through battles," said the minister ; " there is more done 
 with pens than swords ; so, if you want to do anything, you 
 must read and study." 
 
 " Do you think of giving this boy a liberal education ? * 
 said Mr. Sewell some time later in the evening, after Mosea 
 and Mara were gone to bed. 
 
 " Depends on the boy," said Zephaniah. " I 've been up 
 to Brunswick, and seen the fellows there in the college. 
 With a good many of 'em, going to college seems to be just 
 nothing but a sort of ceremony ; they go because they 're 
 sent, and don't learn anything more 'n they can help. That 'a 
 what I call waste of time and money." 
 
 " But don't you think Moses shows some taste for reading 
 and study ? " 
 
 "Pretty well, pretty well!" said Zephaniah; "jist keep 
 him a little hungry ; not let him get all he wants, you see, 
 and he '11 bite the sharper. If I want to catch cod I don't 
 begin with flingin' over a barrel o' bait. So with the boys, 
 jist bait 'em with a book here and a book there, and kind o' 
 let 'em feel their own way, and then, if nothin' will do but 
 n fellow must go to college, give in to him that'd be my 
 way." 
 
 " And a very good one, too ! " said Mr. Sewell. " I '11 see 
 if I can't bait my hook, so as to make Moses take after Latin 
 this winter. I shall have plenty of time to teach him." 
 
 " Now, there 's Mara ! " said the Captain, his face becom- 
 ing phosphorescent with a sort of mild radiance of pleasure} 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 167 
 
 us it usually was when he spoke of her ; " she 's real sharp 
 set after bojks ; she's ready to fly out of her little skin at 
 the sight of one." 
 
 " That child thinks too much, and feels too much, and 
 knows too much for her years ! " said Mr. Sewell. " If she 
 were a boy, and you would take her away cod-fishing, as 
 you have Moses, the sea-winds would blow away some of 
 the thinking, and her little body would grow stout, and her 
 mind less de?icate and sensitive. But she's a woman," he 
 Baid, with a sigh, " and they are all alike. We can't do 
 much for them, but let them come up as they will and make 
 the best of it" 
 
168 THE PEART, OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 * EMILY," said Mr. Sevvell, "did you ever take much 
 notice of that little Mara Lincoln ? " 
 
 "No, brother; why?" 
 
 " Because I think her a very uncommon child." 
 
 " She is a pretty little creature," said Miss Emily ; " but 
 that is all I know ; modest blushing to her eyes when a 
 stranger speaks to her." 
 
 " She has wonderful eyes," said Mr. Sewell ; " when she 
 gets excited, they grow so large and so bright, it seems al- 
 most unnatural." 
 
 " Dear me ! has she ? " said Miss Emily, in the tone of 
 one who had been called upon to do something about it 
 "Well?" she added, inquiringly. 
 
 " That little thing is only seven years old," said Mr. Sew 
 ell ; " and she is thinking and feeling herself all into mere 
 spirit brain and nerves all active, and her little body so 
 frail. She reads incessantly, and thinks over and over what 
 ghe reads." 
 
 "Well?" said Miss Emily, winding very swiftly en a 
 skein of black silk, and giving a little twitch, every now and 
 then, to a knot to make it subservient. 
 
 It was commonly the way, when Mr. Sewell began to talk 
 with Miss Emily, that she constantly answered him with the 
 manner of one who expects some immediate, practical prop- 
 osition to flow from every train of thought. Now Mr 
 
TIIE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 16* 
 
 Sewell was one of the reflecting kind of men, whose th >ught3 
 have a thousand meandering paths, that lead nowhere in 
 particular. His sister's brisk little " Well's ? " and " Ah's ! " 
 and " Indeed's ! " were sometimes the least bit in the world 
 annoying. 
 
 " What is to be done ? " said Miss Emily ; " shall we 
 Hpcak to Mrs. Fennel ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Pennel would know nothing about her." 
 
 " How strangely you talk ! who should, if she does n't?" 
 
 "I mean, she wouldn't understand the dangers of her 
 case." 
 
 " Dangers ! Do you think she has any disease ? She 
 geems to be a healthy child enough, I 'm sure. She has a 
 lovely color in her cheeks." 
 
 Mr. Sewell seemed suddenly to become immersed in a 
 book he was reading. 
 
 " There now," said Miss Emily, with a little tone of pique, 
 " that 's the way you always do. You begin to talk with me, 
 and just as I get interested in the conversation, you take up 
 a book. It 's too bad." 
 
 " Emily," said Mr. Sewell, laying down his book, " I 
 think I shall begin to give Moses Pennel Latin lessons this 
 winter." 
 
 " Why, what do you undertake that for ? " said Miss 
 Emily. " You have enough to do without that, I 'm 
 sure." 
 
 " lie is an uncommonly bright boy, and he interests 
 me." 
 
 " Now, brother, you need n't tell me; there is some mys- 
 ury about the interest you take in that child, you know there 
 L." 
 
 u I an fond of children," said Mr. Sewell, dryly. 
 8 
 
170 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Well, but you don't take as much interest in other boys. 
 I never heard of your teaching any of them Latin before." 
 
 " Well, Emily, he is an uncommonly interesting child, and 
 the providential circumstances under which he came into 
 our neighborhood" 
 
 " Providential fiddlesticks ! " said Miss Emily, with 
 heightened color. " / believe you knew that boy's mother." 
 
 This sudden thrust brought a vivid color into Mr. Sew- 
 ell's cheeks. To be interrupted so unceremoniously, in the 
 midst of so very proper and ministerial a remark, was 
 rather provoking, and he answered, with some asperity, 
 
 "And suppose I had, Emily, and supposing there were 
 any painful subject connected with this past event, you 
 might have sufficient forbearance not to try to make me 
 speak on what I do not wish to talk of." 
 
 Mr. Sewell was one of your gentle, dignified men, from 
 whom Heaven deliver an inquisitive female friend ! If 
 such people would only get angry, and blow some unbecom- 
 ing blast, one might make something of them ; but speaking, 
 as they always do, from the serene heights of immaculate 
 propriety, one gets in the wrong before one knows it, and 
 has nothing for it but to beg pardon. 
 
 Miss Emily had, however, a feminine resource : she began 
 to cry wisely confining herself to the simple eloquence of 
 tears and sobs. Mr. Sewell sat as awkwardly as if he had 
 trodden on a kitten's toe, or brushed down a china cup, feel- 
 ing as if he were a great, horrid, clumsy boor, and his pool 
 liJtle sister a martyr. 
 
 " Come, Emily," he said, in a softer tone, when the sobs 
 lubsided a little. 
 
 But Emily didn't "come," but went at it with a frssl 
 turst. 
 
TH PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 171 
 
 Mr. Sewell had a vision like that which drowning men 
 are said to have, in which all Miss Emily's sisterly devo- 
 tions, stocking-darnings, account-keepings, nursings and tend- 
 ings, and infinite self-sacrifices, rose up before him : and 
 there she was crying ! 
 
 " I 'm sorry I spoke harshly, Emily. Come, come ; that 'a 
 a good girl." 
 
 " 1 'm a silly fool," said Miss Emily, lifting her head, and 
 wiping the tears from her merry little eyes, as she went on 
 winding her silk. 
 
 " Perhaps he will tell me now," she thought, as she 
 wound. 
 
 But he did n't. 
 
 " What I was going to say, Emily," said her brother, 
 " was, that I thought it would be a good plan for little 
 Mara to come sometimes with Moses; and then, by ob- 
 serving her more particularly, you might be of use to 
 her ; her little, active mind needs good practical guidance 
 like yours." 
 
 Mr. Sewell spoke in a gentle, flattering tone, and Miss 
 Emily was flattered ; but she soon saw that she had gained 
 nothing by the whole breeze, except a little kind of dread, 
 which made her inwardly resolve never to touch the knocker 
 of his fortress again. But she entered into her brother's 
 scheme with the facile alacrity with which she usually sec- 
 onded any schemes of his proposing. 
 
 " I might teach her painting and embroidery," said Mi.-s 
 Emily, glancing, with a satisfied air, at a framed piece of 
 bor own work which hung over the mantel-piece, revealing 
 ihe state of the fine arts m this country, as exhibited in the 
 performances of well-instructed young ladies of that period 
 Miss Emily had performed it under the tuition of a cele 
 
172 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 orated teacher of female accomplishments. It represented a 
 white marble obelisk, which an inscription, in legible India 
 ink letters, stated to be u Sacred to the memory of Theoplii- 
 lus Sewell," &c. This obelisk stood in the midst of a 
 ground made very green by an embroidery of different 
 shades of chenille and silk, and was overshadowed by an 
 embroidered weeping-willow. Leaning on it, with her face 
 concealed in a plentiful flow of white handkerchief, was a 
 female figure in deep mourning, designed to represent the 
 desolate widow. A young girl, in a very black dress, knelt 
 in front of it, and a very lugubrious-looking young man, 
 standing bolt upright on the other side, seemed to hold in 
 his hand one end of a wreath of roses, which the girl was 
 presenting, as an appropriate decoration for the tomb. The 
 girl and gentleman were, of course, the young Theophilus 
 and Miss Emily, and the appalling grief conveyed by the 
 expression of their faces was a triumph of the pictorial 
 art. 
 
 Miss Emily had in her bedroom a similar funeral trophy, 
 sacred to the memory of her deceased mother, besides 
 which there were, framed and glazed, in the little sitting- 
 room, two embroidered shepherdesses standing with rueful 
 faces, in charge of certain animals of an uncertain breed 
 between sheep and pigs. The poor little soul had mentally 
 resolved to make Mara the heiress of all the skill and knowl- 
 edge of the arts by which she had been enabled to consum- 
 mate these marvels. 
 
 " She is naturally a lady-like little thing," she said to her- 
 self, " and if I know anything of accomplishments, she shall 
 have them." 
 
 Just about the time that Miss Emily came to this resolu. 
 non, had she been clairvoyant, she might have seen Mars 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 175 
 
 Bitting very quietly, busy in the solitude of her own room 
 with a little sprig of partridge-berry before her, whose round 
 green leaves and brilliant scarlet berries she had been for 
 hours trying to imitate, as appeared from the scattered 
 sketches and fragments around her. In fact, before Zeph- 
 aniah started on his spring fishing, he had caught her one 
 day very busy at work of the same kind, with bits of char- 
 coal, and some colors compounded out of wild berries ; and 
 so out of his capacious pocket, after his return, he drew a 
 little box of water-colors and a lead-pencil and square of 
 india-rubber, which he had bought for her in Portland on 
 his way home. 
 
 Hour after hour the child works, so still, so fervent, 
 so earnest, going over and over, time after time, her 
 simple, ignorant methods to make it " look like," and stop- 
 ping, at times, to give the true artist's sigh, as the little 
 green and scarlet fragment lies there hopelessly, unapproach- 
 ably perfect. Ignorantly to herself, the hands of the little 
 pilgrim are knocking at the very door where Giotto and 
 Cimabue knocked in the innocent child-life of Italian art. 
 
 " "Why won't it look round ? " she said to Moses, who had 
 come in behind her. 
 
 " Why, Mara, did you do these ? " said Moses, astonished; 
 * "why, how well they are done ! I should know in a minute 
 what they were meant for." 
 
 Mara flushed up at being praised by Moses, but heaved a 
 deep sigh as she looked back. 
 
 " It 's so pretty, that sprig," she said ; " if I cnly could 
 it just like " - 
 
 " Why, nobody expects that" said Moses, " it 's like 
 sLough, if people only know what you mean it for. But 
 urne, now, get your bonnet, and come with mn in the boat 
 
174 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Captain Kittndge has just broughi down our new one, and 
 I 'm going to take you over to Eagle Island, and we '11 take 
 our dinner and stay all day ; mother says so." 
 
 "Oh, how nice !" said the little girl, running cheerfully for 
 her sun-bonnet. 
 
 At the house-door they met Mrs. Pennel, with a little 
 closely-covered tin pail. 
 
 "Here's your dinner, children; and, Moses, mini and 
 take good care of her." 
 
 " Never fear me, mother, I Ve been to the Banks ; there 
 wasn't a man there could manage a boat better than I 
 could." 
 
 " Yes, grandmother," said Mara, " you ought to see how 
 strong his arms are ; I believe he will be like Samson one 
 Df these days if he keeps on." 
 
 So away they went. It was a glorious August forenoon, 
 and the sombre spruces and shaggy hemlocks that dipped 
 and rippled in the waters were penetrated to their deepest 
 recesses with the clear brilliancy of the sky, a true north- 
 ern sky, without a cloud, without even a softening haze, de- 
 fining every outline, revealing every minute point, cutting 
 with sharp decision the form of every promontory and rock, 
 and distant island. 
 
 The blue of the sea and the blue of the sky were so much 
 the same, that when the children had rowed far out, the lit- 
 fle boat seemed to float midway, poised in the centre of an 
 azure sphere, with a firmament above and a firmament bo- 
 low. Mara leaned dreamily over the side of the boat, and 
 drew her little hands through the waters as they rippled 
 along to the swift oars' strokes, and she saw as the waves 
 broke, and divided and shivered around the boat, a hundred 
 little faces, with brown eyes and golden hair, gleaming up 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 175 
 
 through the water, and dancing away over rippling waves, 
 and thought that so the sea-nymphs might look who 
 oame up from the coral caves when they ring the knell 
 of drowned people. Moses sat opposite to her, with his 
 coat off, and his heavy black curls more wavy and glossy 
 than ever, as the exercise made them damp with perspi- 
 ration. 
 
 Eagle Island lay on the blue sea, a tangled thicket of ever- 
 greens, white pine, spruce, arbor vitce, and fragrant silver 
 firs. A little strip of white beach bound it, like a silver set- 
 ting to a gem. And there Moses at length moored his boat, 
 and the children landed. The island was wholly solitary, and 
 there is something to children quite delightful in feeling that 
 they have a little lonely world all to themselves. Childhood 
 is itself such an enchanted island, separated by mysterious 
 depths from the main-land of nature, life, and reality. 
 
 Moses had subsided a little from the glorious heights on 
 which he seemed to be in the first flush of his return, and 
 he and Mara, in consequence, were the friends of old time. 
 It is true he thought himself quite a man, but the manhood 
 of a boy is only a tiny masquerade, a fantastic, dreamy 
 prevision of real manhood. It was curious that Mara, who 
 was by all odds the most precociously-developed of the two, 
 never thought of asserting herself a woman ; in fact, she 
 seldom thought of herself at all, but dreamed and pondered 
 of almost everything else. 
 
 " I declare," said Moses, looking up into a thick-branched, 
 rugged old hemlock, which stood all shaggy, with heavy 
 beards of gray moss drooping from its branches > " there 'a 
 ED eagle's nest up there ; I mean to go and see." 
 
 And up he went into the gloomy embrace of the old tree, 
 crackling the dead branches, wrenching off handfuls of graj 
 
176 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 moss, rising higher and higher, every once in a while tu t* 
 ing and showing to Mara his glowing face and curly } aif 
 through a dusky green frame of boughs, and then mounting 
 again. " I 'm coming to it," he kept exclaiming. 
 
 Meanwhile his proceedings seemed to create a sensation 
 amcng the feathered house-keepers, one of whom rose and 
 sailed screaming away into the air. In a moment after 
 there was a swoop of wings, and two eagles returned and 
 began flapping and screaming about the head of the boy. 
 
 Mara, wlo stood at the foot of the tree, could not see 
 clearly what was going on, for the thickness of the boughs ; 
 she only heard a great commotion and rattling of the 
 branches, the scream of the birds, and the swooping of their 
 wings, and Moses' valorous exclamations, as he seemed to 
 be laying about him with a branch which he had broken 
 off. 
 
 At last he descended victorious, with the eggs in his 
 pocket. Mara stood at the foot of the tree, with her sun- 
 bonnet blown back, her hair streaming, and her little arms 
 upstretched, as if to catch him if he fell. 
 
 " Oh, I was so afraid ! " she said, as he set foot on the 
 ground. 
 
 "Afraid? Pooh! Who's afraid? Why, you might 
 know the old eagles could n't beat me." 
 
 " Ah, well, I know how strong you are ; but, you know, 
 I could n't help it. But the poor birds, do hear 'em 
 Bcream. Moses, don't you suppose they feel bad ? " 
 
 " No, they 're only mad, to think they could n't beat me, 
 I beat them just as the Romans used to beat folks, 1 
 played their nest was a city, and I spoiled it." 
 
 "I should n't want to spoil cities ! " said Mara. 
 
 ** That 's 'cause you are a girl, I 'm a man, and me* 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 177 
 
 always like war ; I 've taken one city this afternoon, and 
 mean to take a great many more." 
 
 " But, Moses, do you think war is right ? " 
 
 " Right ? why, yes, to be sure ; if it a'n't, it 's a pity ; for 
 it 's all that has ever been done in this world. In the Bible, 
 or out, certainly it 's right. I wish I had a gun now, I 'd 
 stop those old eagles' screeching." 
 
 " But. Moses, we should n't want any one to come ao 5 
 bteal all our things, and then shoot us." 
 
 " How long you do think about things ! " said Moses, im 
 patient at her pertinacity. " I am older than you, and when 
 I tell you a thing 's right, you ought to believe it. Besides, 
 don't you take hens' eggs every day, in the barn ? How do 
 you suppose the hens like that?" 
 
 This was a home-thrust, and for the moment, threw the 
 little casuist off the track. She carefully folded up the idea, 
 and laid it away on the inner shelves of her mind, till she 
 2ould think more about it. 
 
 Pliable as she was to all outward appearances, the child 
 had her own still, interior world, where all her little notions 
 and opinions stood up crisp and fresh, like flowers that grow 
 in cool, shady places. If anybody too rudely assailed a 
 thought or suggestion she put forth, she drew it back again 
 into this quiet inner chamber, and went on. Reader, there 
 are some women of this habit; and there is no independence 
 and pertinacity of opinion like that of these seemingly soft, 
 quiet creatures, whom it is so easy to silence, and so difficult 
 to convince. Mara, little and unformed as she yet was, be- 
 longed to the race of those spirits to -^hom is deputed the 
 office of the angel in the Apocalypse to whom was given 
 the golden rod which measured the New Jerusalem. Infant 
 Ihough she was, she had ever in her hand? that invisible 
 8* 
 
178 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 measuring rod, which she was laying to the fcjndatiors ol 
 all actions and thoughts. There may, perhaps, come a time 
 when the saucy boy, who now steps so superbly, and pre- 
 dominates so proudly in virtue of his physical strength and 
 daring, will learn to tremble at the golden measuring-rod, 
 held in the hand of a woman. 
 
 u Howbeit, that is not first which is spiritual, but that 
 which is natural." Moses is the type of the first unreflect- 
 ing stage of development, in which are only the out-reach- 
 ings of active faculties, the aspirations that tend toward 
 manly accomplishments. 
 
 Seldom do we meet sensitiveness of conscience or dis- 
 criminating reflection as the indigenous growth o' a very 
 vigorous physical development. 
 
 Your true healthy boy has the breezy, hearty Tr.tues of 
 a Newfoundland dog, the wild fulness of life of the young 
 race-colt. Sentiment, sensibility, delicate percept' ons, spirit- 
 ual aspirations, are plants of later growth. 
 
 But there are, both of men and women, bein^o born into 
 this world in whom from childhood the spiritual and the 
 reflective predominate over the physical. In relation to 
 other human beings, they seem to be organized much as 
 birds are in relation to other animals. They are the artists, 
 the poets, the unconscious seers, to whom the purer truths 
 of spiritual instruction are open. Surveying man merely 
 as an animal, these sensitively-organized beings, with their 
 feebler physical powers, are imperfect specimens of life. 
 Looking from the spiritual side, they seem to have a noblo 
 strength, a divine force. The types of this latter class ara 
 more commonly among women than among men. Multi 
 tudes of them pass away in earlier years, and leave behind 
 in many hearts the anxious wonder, why they came so fail 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 179 
 
 only to mock the love they kindled. They who live tc 
 maturity are the priests and priestesses of the spiritual life, 
 ordained of God to keep the balance between the rude but 
 absolute necessities of physical life and the higher sphere to 
 which that must at length give place. 
 
18C THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MOSES felt elevated some inches in the world by the gift 
 f a new Latin grammar, which had been bought for him 
 in Brunswick. It was a step upward in life ; no graduate 
 from a college ever felt more ennobled. 
 
 " Wai*, now, I tell ye, Moses Fennel," said Miss Roxy, 
 who, with her press-board and big flat-iron, was making her 
 autumn sojourn in the brown house, " I tell ye Latin a'n't 
 just what you think 't is, steppin' round so crank ; you must 
 remember what the king of Israel said to Benhadad, king 
 of Syria." 
 
 " I don't remember ; what did he say ? " 
 
 " I remember," said the soft voice of Mara ; " he said, 
 1 Let not him that putteth on the harness boast as him that 
 putteth it off/" 
 
 " Good for you, Mara," said Miss Roxy ; " if some other 
 folks read their Bibles as much as you do, they 'd know 
 more." 
 
 Between Moses and Miss Roxy there had always been a 
 state of sub-acute warfare since the days of his first arri- 
 val, she regarding him as an unhopeful interloper, and he 
 regarding her as a grim-visaged, interfering gnome, whom 
 he disliked with all the intense, unreasoning antipathy of 
 childhood. 
 
 "I hate that old woman," he said to Mara, as he flung 
 out of the door. 
 
THE PEAKL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 181 
 
 " Why, Moses, what for ? " said Mara, who never could 
 x>mprehend hating anybody. 
 
 " I do hate her, and Aunt Ruey, too. They are two old 
 scratching cats ; they hate me, and I hate them ; they 're 
 always trying to bring me down, and I won't be brought 
 down." 
 
 Mara had sufficient instinctive insight into the feminine 
 role in the domestic concert not to adventure a direct argu- 
 ment just now in favor of her friends, and therefore she 
 proposed that they should sit down together under a cedar 
 hard by, and look over the first lesson. 
 
 " Miss Emily invited me to go over with you," she said, 
 "and I should like so much to hear you recite." 
 
 Moses thought this very proper, as would any other male 
 person, young or old, who has been habitually admired by 
 any other female one. 
 
 He did not doubt that, as in fishing and rowing, and all 
 other things he had undertaken as yet, he should win him- 
 self distinguished honors. 
 
 " See here," he said ; " Mr. Sewell told me I might go 
 as far as I liked, and I mean to take all the declensions to 
 begin with, there 's five of 'em, and I shall learn them 
 for the first lesson, and then I shall take the adjectives 
 next, and next the verbs, and so in a fortnight get intc 
 reading." 
 
 Mara heaved a sort of sigh. She wished she had been 
 invited to share this glorious race ; but she looked on ad- 
 miring when Moses read, in a loud voice, " Penna, pennce, 
 Dennac, pennam," &c. 
 
 " There now, I believe I 've got it," he said, handing 
 Mara the book; and he was perfectly astonished to find 
 ihat, with the book withdrawn, he boggled, and blundered. 
 
182 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 and stumbled ingloriously. In vain Mara softly prompted, 
 and looked at him with pitiful eyes as he grew red in the 
 face with his efforts to remember. 
 
 " Confound it all ! " he said, with an angry flush, snatch- 
 ing back the book ; " it 's more trouble than it 's worth." 
 
 Again he began the repetition, saying it very loud and 
 plain ; he said it over and over till his mind wandered far 
 out to sea, and while his tongue repeated " penna, pennce," 
 he was counting the white sails of the fishing-smacks, and 
 thinking of pulling up codfish at the Banks. 
 
 " There now, Mara, try me," he said, and handed her the 
 book again ; " I 'm sure I must know it now." 
 
 But, alas ! with the book the sounds glided away ; and 
 " penna " and " pennam " and " pennis " and " pennae " were 
 confusedly and indiscriminately mingled. 
 
 He thought it must be Mara's fault ; she did n't read 
 right, or she told him just as he was going to say it, or she 
 did n't tell him right ; or was he a fool ? or had he lost his 
 senses ? 
 
 That first declension has been a valley of humiliation to 
 many a sturdy boy to many a bright one, too ; and often 
 it is, that the more full of thought and vigor the mind is, the 
 more difficult is it to narrow it down to the single dry issue 
 of learning those sounds. 
 
 Heinrich Heine said the Romans would never have found 
 time to conquer the world, if they had had to learn their owe 
 language ; but that, luckily for them, they were born into 
 the knowledge of what nouns form their accusatives in " urn/' 
 
 Long before Moses had learned the first declension, Mara 
 knew it by heart ; for her intense anxiety for him, and the 
 eagerness and zeal with which she listened for each termi' 
 nation, fixed them in her mind. Besides, she was natural! j 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 183 
 
 >f a more quiet and scholar-like turn than he, more in- 
 tellectually developed. 
 
 Moses began to think, before that memorable day was 
 through, that there was some sense in Aunt Roxy's quota- 
 tion of the saying of the King of Israel, and materially to 
 retrench his expectations as to the time it might take to 
 master the grammar ; but still, his pride and will were both 
 committed, and he worked away in this new sort of labor 
 with energy. 
 
 It was a fine frosty, November morning, when he rowed 
 Mara across the bay in a little boat to recite his first lesson 
 to Mr. Sewell. 
 
 Miss Emily had provided a plate of seed-cake, otherwise 
 called cookies, for the children, as was a kindly custom of 
 old times, when the little people were expected. 
 
 Miss Emily had a dim idea that she was to do something 
 for Mara in her own department, while Moses was reciting 
 his lesson ; and therefore producing a large sampler, dis- 
 playing every form and variety of marking-stitch, she began 
 questioning the little girl, in a low tone, as to her proficiency 
 in that useful accomplishment. 
 
 Presently, however, she discovered that the child was 
 restless and uneasy, and that she answered without knowing 
 what she was saying. The fact was that she was listening, 
 with her whole soul in her eyes, and feeling through all her 
 nerves, every word Moses was saying. She knew all the 
 critical places, where he was likely to go wrong ; and when 
 at last, in one place, he gave the wrong termination, she in- 
 voluntarily called out the right one, starting up and turning 
 towards them. In a moment she blushed deeply, seeing 
 Mr. Sewell and Miss Emily both looking af her with sur 
 prise. 
 
184 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Come here, pussy," said Mr. Sewell, stretching out his 
 hand to her. " Can you say this ? " 
 
 " I believe I could, sir." 
 
 " Well, try it." 
 
 She went through without missing a word. Mr. Sewell 
 Ihen, lor curiosity, heard her repeat all the other forms of 
 the lesson. She had them perfectly. 
 
 " Very well, my little girl,"' he said, " have you beer 
 studying, too?" 
 
 "I heard Moses say them so often," said Mara, in an 
 apologetic manner, " I could n't help learning them." 
 
 " Would you like to recite with Moses every day ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, sir, so much." 
 
 " Well, you shall. It is better for him to have company." 
 
 Mara's face brightened, and Miss Emily looked with a 
 puzzled air at her brother. 
 
 " So," she said, when the children had gone home, " 1 
 thought you wanted me to take Mara under my care. I 
 was going to begin and teach her some marking stitches, 
 and you put her up to studying Latin. I don't under- 
 stand you." 
 
 " Well, Emily, the fact is, the child has a natural turn for 
 study, that no child of her age ought to have ; and I have 
 done just as people always will with such children ; there 'a 
 no sense in it, but I wanted to do it. You can teach her 
 marking and embroidery all the same ; it would break her 
 little heart, now, if I were to turn her back." 
 
 " I do not see of what use Latin can be to a woman." 
 
 " Of what use is embroidery ? " 
 
 " Why, that is an accomplishment." 
 
 " Ah, indeed ! " said Mr. Sewell, contemplating the weep 
 ing willow and tombstone trophy with a singular expression. 
 
1HE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 185 
 
 tthich it was lucky for Miss Emily'? peace she did not 
 understand. The fact was, that Mr. Sewell had, at one 
 period of his life, had an opportunity of studying and ob- 
 serving minutely some really fine works of art, and the 
 remembrance of them sometimes rose up to his mind, in thr 
 presence of the chefs-cC&uvre on which his sister rested with 
 so much complacency. It was a part of his quiet inteiiof 
 store of amusement to look at these bits of Byzantine em- 
 broidery round the room, which affected him always Avith a 
 subtle sense of drollery. 
 
 " You see, brother," said Miss Emily, " it is far better 
 for women to be accomplished than learned." 
 
 " You are quite right in the main," said Mr. Sewell, 
 " only you must let me have my own way just for once. 
 One can't be consistent always." 
 
 So another Latin grammar was brought, and Moses began 
 to feel a secret respect for his little companion, that he had 
 never done before, when he saw how easily she walked 
 through the labyrinths which at first so confused him. 
 
 Before this, the comparison had been wholly in points 
 where superiority arose from physical daring and vigor ; 
 now he became aware of the existence of another kind of 
 strength with which he had not measured himself. Mara's 
 opinion in their mutual studies began to assume a value in 
 his eyes that her opinions on other subjects had never done, 
 and she saw and felt, with a secret gratification, that she was 
 becoming more to him through their mutual pursuit. To 
 say the truth, it required this fellowship to inspire Moses 
 with the patience and perseverance necessary for this species 
 of acquisition. His active, daring temperament little inclined 
 him to patient, quiet study. For anything that could be 
 done by two hands, hi was always ready ; but to hold handf 
 
186 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 gtill and work silently in the inner forces, was to him a 
 species of undertaking that seemed against his very nature 
 but then he would do it he would not disgrace himself 
 before Mr. Sewell, and let a girl younger than himself 
 outdo him. 
 
 But the thing, after all, that absorbed more of Moses' 
 thoughts than all his lessons was the building and rigging of 
 a small schooner, at which he worked assiduously in all his 
 leisure moments. He had dozens of blocks of wood, into 
 which he had cut anchor moulds ; and the melting of lead, 
 the running and shaping of anchors, the whittling of masta 
 and spars took up many an hour. Mara entered into all 
 these things readily, and was too happy to make herself 
 useful in hemming the sails. 
 
 When the schooner was finished, they built some ways 
 down by the sea, and invited Sally Kittridge over to see 
 it launched. 
 
 " There ! " he said, when the little thing skimmed down 
 prosperously into the sea and floated gayly on the waters 
 " when I 'm a man, I '11 have a big ship ; I '11 build her, and 
 launch her, and command her, all myself; and I '11 give you 
 and Sally both a passage in it, and we '11 go off to the East 
 Indies we '11 sail round the world ! " 
 
 None of the three doubted the feasibility of this scheme ; 
 the little vessel they had just launched seemed the visible 
 prophecy of such a future ; and how pleasant it would be to 
 Bail off, with the world all before them, and winds ready to 
 blow them to any port they might wish ! 
 
 The three children arranged some bread and cheese and 
 doughnuts on a rock on the shore, to represent the collation 
 that was usually spread in those parts at a ship launch 
 \ud frit quite like grown people acting life beforehand 
 
HIE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 187 
 
 in that sort of shadowy pantomime which so delights little 
 people. 
 
 Happy, happy days when ships can be made with a 
 jack-knife and anchors run in pine blocks, and three chil- 
 dren together can launch a schooner, and the voyage of the 
 world can all be made in one sunny Saturday afternoon ! 
 
 " Mother says you are going to college," said Sally to 
 Moses. 
 
 "Not I, indeed," said Moses; "as soon as I get old 
 enough, I 'm going up to Umbagog among the lumberero, 
 and I 'm going to cut real, splendid timber for my ship, and 
 I 'm going to get it on the stocks, and have it built to suit 
 myself." 
 
 " What will you call her ? " said Sally. 
 
 " I have n't thought of that," said Moses. 
 
 * Call her the Ariel," said Mara. 
 
 " What ! after the spirit you were telling us about ? " said 
 Sally. 
 
 " Ariel is a pretty name," said Moses. " But what is that 
 about a spirit ? " 
 
 " Why," said Sally, " Mara read us a story about a ship 
 that was wrecked, and a spirit called Ariel, that sang a song 
 about the drowned mariners." 
 
 Mara gave a shy, apprehensive glance at Moses, to see if 
 this allusion called up any painful recollections. 
 
 No ; instead of this, he was following the motions of his 
 little schooner on the waters with the briskest and most un- 
 concerned air in the world. 
 
 " Why did n't you ever show me that story, Mara ? " said 
 Moses. 
 
 Mara colored and hesitated; the real reason she dared 
 not say. 
 
88 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLANTX 
 
 " Why, she read it to father and me down by the cove, 
 said Sally, " the afternoon that you came home from thft 
 Banks ; I remember how we saw you coming in ; don't you, 
 Mara?" 
 
 " What have you done with it ? " said Moses. 
 
 " I Ve got it at home," said Mara, in a faint voice ; " I '11 
 show it tc you, if you want to see it ; there are such beauti- 
 ful things in it." 
 
 That evening, as Moses sat busy, making some alterations 
 in his darling schooner, Mara produced her treasure, and 
 read and explained to him the story. He listened with 
 interest, though without any of the extreme feeling which 
 Mara had thought possible, and even interrupted her once in 
 tli3 middle of the celebrated 
 
 " Full fathom five thy father lies," 
 
 by asking her to hold up the mast a minute, while he drove 
 in a peg to make it rake a little more. He was, evidently, 
 thinking of no drowned father, and dreaming of no possible 
 sea-caves, but acutely busy in fashioning a present reality ; 
 nnd yet he liked to hear Mara read, and, when she had done, 
 told her that he thought it was a pretty, quite a pretty 
 story, with such a total absence of recognition that the story 
 had any affinities with his own history, that Mara was quite 
 astonished. 
 
 She lay and thought about him hours, that night, after she 
 had gone to bed ; and he lay and thought about a new way 
 of disposing a pulley for raising a sail, which he determined 
 to try the effect of early in the morning. 
 
 What was the absolute truth in regard to the boy ? Had 
 he forgotten the scenes of his early life, the strange catas- 
 trophe that cast him into his present circumstances? Tc 
 this we answei that all the efforts of Nature, during th 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 189 
 
 early years of a healthy childhood, are bent on effacing and 
 obliterating painful impressions, wiping out from each day 
 the sorrows of the List, as the daily tide effaces the furrows 
 on the sea-shore. 
 
 The child that broods, day after day, over some fixed idea, 
 is so far forth not a healthy one. It is Nature's way to 
 make first a healthy animal, and then develop in it gradually 
 higher faculties. We have seen our two children unequally 
 matched hitherto, because unequally developed. 
 
 There will come a time, by and by in the history of the 
 boy, when the haze of dreamy curiosity will steam up like- 
 wise from his mind, and vague yearnings, and questionings, 
 and longings possess and trouble him, but it must be some 
 years hence. 
 
 Here for a season we leave both our child friends, and 
 when ten years have passed over their heads, when Moses 
 shall be twenty, and Mara seventeen, we will return again 
 to tell their story, for then there will be one to tell. Let us 
 suppose in the interval, how Moses and Mara read Virgil 
 with the minister, and how Mara works a shepherdess with 
 Miss Emily, which astonishes the neighborhood, but how 
 by herself she learns, after divers trials, to paint partridge, 
 and checkerberry, and trailing arbutus, how Moses makes 
 better and better ships, and Sally grows up a handsome girl, 
 and goes up to Brunswick to the high school, how Cap- 
 tain Kittridge tells stories, and Miss Roxy and Miss Ruey 
 nurse and cut and make and mend, for the still rising gen- 
 eration, how there are quillings and tea-drinkings and 
 prayer-meetings and Sunday sermons, how Zephaniah 
 and Mary Pennel grow old gradually and graciously, as the 
 sun rises and sets, and the eternal silver tide rises and falls 
 around our little gem, Orr's Island 
 
190 THE PEA.RL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 "Now, where's Sally Kittridge ? There's the clock 
 striking five, and nobody to set the table. Sally, I say! 
 Sally!" 
 
 " Why, Mis' Kittridge," said the Captain, " Sally 's gone 
 out more 'n an hour ago, and I expect she 's gone down to 
 Fennel's to see Mara; 'cause, you know, she come home 
 from Portland to-day." 
 
 " Well, if she 's come home, I s'pose I may as well give 
 up havin' any good of Sally, for that girl fairly bows down 
 to Mara Lincoln and worships her." 
 
 " Well, good reason," said the Captain. " There a'n't a 
 puttier creature breathin'. I'm a'most a mind to worship 
 her myself." 
 
 " Captain Kittridge, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, 
 at your age, talking as you do." 
 
 " Why, laws, mother, I don't feel my age," said the frisky 
 Captain, giving a sort of skip. " It don't seem more 'n yes- 
 lerday since you and I was a-courtin', Polly. What a life 
 you did lead me in them days ! I think you kep' me on the 
 anxious seat a pretty middlin' spell." 
 
 " I do wish you would n't talk so. You ought to be 
 ashamed to be triflin' round as you do. Come, now, can't 
 you jest tramp over to Pennel's and tell Sally I wan) 
 her?" 
 
 " Not I, mother. There a'n't but two gals in two miles 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 191 
 
 iquare here, and I a'n't a-goin' to be the feller to shoo 'em 
 npart. What 's the use of bein* gals, and young, and putty, 
 if they can't get together and talk about their new gownds 
 and the fellers ? That ar 's what gals is for." 
 
 " I do wish you would n't talk in that way before Sally, 
 father, for her head is full of all sorts of vanity now ; and a8 
 to Mara, I never did see a more slack-twisted, flimsy thing 
 than she 's grown up to be. Now Sally 's learnt to do 
 something, thanks to me. She can brew, and she can make 
 bread and cake and pickles, and spin, and cut, and make. 
 But as to Mara, what does she do ? Why, she paints pic- 
 tur's. Mis' Fennel was a-showin' on me a blue-jay she 
 painted, and I was a-thinkin' whether she could brile a bird 
 fit to be eat if she tried ; and she don't know the price of 
 nothin'," continued Mrs. Kittridge, with wasteful profusion 
 of negatives. 
 
 " Well," said the Captain, " the Lord makes some things 
 jist to be looked at. Their work is to be putty, and that 
 ar 's Mara's sphere. It never seemed to me she was cut out 
 for hard work ; but she 's got sweet ways and kind words 
 for everybody, and it 's as good as a psalm to look at her." 
 
 " And what sort of a wife '11 she make, Captain Kit- 
 tridge ? " 
 
 " A real sweet, putty one," said the Captain, persistently. 
 
 " Well, as to beauty, I 'd rather have our Sally any day," 
 said Mrs. Kittridge ; " and she looks strong and hearty, and 
 seems to be good for use." 
 
 " So she is, so she is," said the Captain, with fatherly 
 pride. " Sally 's the very image of her ma at her age . 
 black eyes, black hair, tall and trim as a spruce-tree, and 
 Steps off as if she had springs in her heels. I tell you, tho 
 feller '11 have to be spry that catches her. There 'a two or 
 
192 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 three of 'em at it, I see ; but Sally won't have nothin' to say 
 to 'em. I hope she won't, yet awhile." 
 
 " Sally is a girl that has as good an eddication as money 
 can give," said Mrs. Kittridge. " If I 'd a-had her advan- 
 tages at her age, I should a-been a great deal more 'n I am. 
 But we ha'n't spared nothin' for Sally ; and when nothin' 
 would do but Mara must be sent to Miss Plucher's school 
 orer in Portland, why, I sent Sally too for all she 's our 
 seventh child, and Fennel has n't but the one." 
 
 " You forget Moses," said the Captain. 
 
 " Well, he 's settin' up on his own account^ I guess. They 
 did talk o' giving him college eddication ; but he was so un- 
 stiddy, there were n't no use in trying. A real wild ass's 
 colt he was." 
 
 " Wai', wal', Moses was in the right on 't. He took the 
 cross-lot track into life," said the Captain. " Colleges is 
 well enough for your smooth, straight-grained lumber, for 
 gen'ral buildin' ; but come to fellers that 's got knots, and 
 streaks, and cross-grains, like Moses Fennel, and the best 
 way is to let 'em eddicate 'emselves, as he 's a-doin'. He 's 
 cut out for the sea, plain enough, and he 'd better be up to 
 Umbagog, cuttin' timber for his ship, than havin' rows with 
 'utors, and blowin' the roof off the colleges, as one o' them 
 tere kind o' fellers is ap' to when he don't have work to use 
 up his steam. Why, mother, there 's more gas got up in them 
 Brunswick buildin's, from young men that are spilin' for 
 hard work, than you could shake a stick at ! But Mis' Fen- 
 nel told me yesterday she was 'spectin' Moses home to 
 day." 
 
 " Oho ! that 's at the bottom of Sally's bein' up there," sai<? 
 Mrs. Kittridge. 
 
 " Mis' Kittridge," said the Captain, " I take it you a'n 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 193 
 
 the woman as would expect a daughter of your bringin' up 
 to be a-runnin' after any young chap, be he who lie may," 
 Baid the Captain. 
 
 Mrs. Kittridge for once was fairly silenced by this home- 
 thrust ; nevertheless, she did not the less think it quite pos- 
 sible, from all that she knew of Sally ; for although that 
 young lady professed great hardness of heart and contempt 
 for all the young male generation of her acquaintance, yet 
 ahe had evidently a turn for observing their ways prob- 
 ibly purely in the way of philosophical inquiry. 
 
tl)i TIIE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 In fact, at this very moment our scene-shifter changes lt.3 
 picture. Away rolls the image of Mrs. Kittridge's kitchen 
 with its sanded floor, its scoured rows of bright pewter plat- 
 ters, its great, deep fireplace, with wide stone hearth, its little 
 looking-glass with a bit of asparagus bush, like a green mist, 
 over it. Exeunt the image of Mrs. Kittridge, with her 
 hands floury from the bread she has been moulding, and 
 the dry, ropy, lean Captain, who has been sitting tilting back 
 in a splint-bottomed chair, and the next scene comes roll- 
 ing in. It is a chamber in the house of Zephaniah Fennel, 
 whose windows present a blue panorama of sea and sky. 
 Through two windows you look forth into the blue belt of 
 Harpswell Bay, bordered on the farther edge by Harpswell 
 Neck, dotted here and there with houses, among which rises 
 the little white meeting-house, like a mother-bird among a 
 flock of chickens. The third window, on the other side of 
 the room, looks far out to sea, where only a group of low, 
 rocky islands interrupts the clear sweep of the horizcn line, 
 with its blue infinitude of distance. 
 
 The furniture of this room, though of the barest and most 
 frigid simplicity, is yet relieved by many of those touches of 
 taste and fancy which the indwelling of a person of sensi* 
 bility and imagination will shed off upon the physical sur 
 roundings. The bed was draped with a white spread, em- 
 broidered with a kind of knotted tracery, the working of 
 
THE PEARL OF GRITS ISLAND. 195 
 
 which was considered among the female accomplishments of 
 those days, and over the head of it was a painting of a 
 bunch of crimson and white trillium, executed with a fidelity 
 to Nature that showed the most delicate gifts of observation. 
 Over the mantel-piece hung a painting of the Bay of Genoa, 
 which had accidentally found a voyage home in Zephaniah 
 Fennel's sea-chest, and which skilful fingers had surrounded 
 with a frame curiously wrought of moss and sea-shells. Two 
 rases of India china stood on the mantel, filled with spring 
 flowers, crowfoot, anemones, and liverwort, with drooping 
 bells of the twin-flower. The looking-glass that hung over 
 the table in one corner of the room was fancifully webbed 
 with long, drooping festoons of that gray moss which hangs 
 in such graceful wreaths from the boughs of the pines in the 
 deep forest shadows of Orr's Island. On the table below 
 was a collection of books : a whole set of Shakspeare which 
 Zephaniah Fennel had bought of a Portland bookseller; a 
 selection, in prose and verse, from the best classic writers, 
 presented to Mara Lincoln, the fly-leaf said, by her sincere 
 friend, Theophilus Sewell ; a Virgil, much thumbed, with an 
 old, worn cover, which, however, some adroit fingers had 
 concealed under a coating of delicately marbled paper; 
 there was a Latin dictionary, a set of Plutarch's Lives, the 
 Mysteries of Udolpho, and Sir Charles Grandison, together 
 with Edwards on the Affections, and Boston's Fourfold State ; 
 there was an inkstand, curiously contrived from a sea- 
 shell, with pens and paper in that phase of arrangement 
 which betokened frequency of use ; and, lastly, & little 
 work-basket, containing a long strip of curious and deli- 
 cate embroidery, in which the needle yet hanging showed 
 jiat the work was in progress. 
 By a table at the sea-looking window sits our little Mara, 
 
196 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 now grown to the maturity of eighteen summers, but re.din 
 ing still unmistakable signs of identity with the little golden 
 haired, dreamy, excitable, fanciful " Pearl " of Orr's Island 
 She is not quite of a middle height, with something beau- 
 tiful and childlike about the moulding of her delicate form. 
 We still see those sad, wistful, hazel eyes, over which the 
 lids drcop with a dreamy languor, and whose dark lustre 
 contrasts singularly with the golden hue of the abundant 
 hair which waves in a thousand rippling undulations around 
 her face. The impression she produces is not that of pale- 
 ness, though there is no color in her cheek ; but her com- 
 plexion has everywhere that delicate pink tinting which 
 one sees in healthy infants, and with the least emotion 
 brightens into a fluttering bloom. Such a bloom is on her 
 cheek at this moment, as she is working away, copying a 
 bunch of scarlet rock-columbine which is in a wine-glass of 
 water before her ; every few moments stopping and holding 
 her work at a distance, to contemplate its effect. At this 
 moment there steps behind her chair a tall, lithe figure, a 
 face with a rich Spanish complexion, large black eyes, glow- 
 ing cheeks, marked eyebrows, and lustrous black hair, ar- 
 ranged in shining braids around her head. It is our old 
 friend, Sally Kittridge, whom common fame calls the hand- 
 somest girl of all the region round Harps well, Macquoit, and 
 Orr's Island. In truth, a wholesome, ruddy, blooming creature 
 she was, the sight of whom cheered and warmed one like a 
 good fire in December ; and she seemed to have enough and 
 to spare of the warmest gifts of vitality and joyous animal 
 life. She had a well-formed mouth, but rather large, and a 
 frank laugh which showed all her teeth sound and a for- 
 tunate sight it was, considering that tiiey were white anc 
 even as pearls ; and the hand that she laid upon Mara's a4 
 
1HE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 197 
 
 this moment, though twice as large as that of the little 
 artist, was yet in harmony with her vigorous, finely de- 
 veloped figure. 
 
 "Mara Lincoln," she said, "you are a witch, a perfect 
 little witch, at painting. How you can make things look so 
 like I don't see. Now, I could paint the things we painted 
 at Miss Plucher's; but then, dear me! they didn't look at all 
 like flowers. One needed to write under them what they 
 were made for." 
 
 " Does this look like to you, Sally ? " said Mara. " I wish 
 it would to me. Just see what a beautiful clear color that 
 flower is. All I can do, I can't make one like it. My 
 scarlet and yellows sink dead into the paper." 
 
 "Why, I think your flowers are wonderful! You are a 
 real genius, that's what you are ! I am only a common girl ; 
 T can't do things as you can." 
 
 " You can do things a thousand times more useful, Sally. 
 I don't pretend to compare with you in the useful arts, and 
 I am only a bungler in ornamental ones. Sally, I feel like 
 a useless little creature. If I could go round as you can, 
 and do business, and make bargains, and push ahead in the 
 world, I should feel that I was good for something ; but 
 eomehow I can't." 
 
 " To be sure you can't," said Sally, laughing. " I should 
 like to see you try it." 
 
 " Now," pursued Mara, in a tone of lamentation, " I could 
 no more get into a carriage and drive to Brunswick as you 
 can, than I could fly. leant drive, Sally something is 
 the matter with me ; and the horses always know it the min- 
 ute I take the reins ; they always twitch their ears and stare 
 round into the chaise at me, as much as to say, * What ! you 
 thtre ? ' and I feel sure they never will min^ 1 mf. And then 
 
19S THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 how you can make those wonderful bargains you do, I can'f 
 see ! you talk up to the clerks and the men, and somehow 
 you talk everybody round ; but as for me, if I only open my 
 mouth in the humblest way to dispute the price, everybody 
 puts me down. I always tremble when I go into a store, 
 and people talk to me just as if I was a little girl, and once 
 or twice they have made me buy things that I knew I did n't 
 want, just because they will talk me down." 
 
 " Oh, Mara, Mara," said Sally, laughing till the tears 
 rolled down her cheeks, " what do you ever go a-shopping 
 for? of course you ought always to send me. Why, look 
 at this dress real India chintz ; do you know I made old 
 Penny whistle's clerk up in Brunswick give it to me just for 
 the price of common cotton ? You see there was a yard of 
 it had got faded by lying in the shop-window, and there 
 were one or two holes and imperfections in it, and you ought 
 to have heard the talk I made ! I abused it to right and 
 left, and actually at last I brought the poor wretch to believe 
 that he ought to be grateful to me for taking it off his hands. 
 Well, you see the dress I 've made of it. The imperfections 
 didn't hurt it the least in the world as I managed it, and 
 the faded breadth makes a good apron, so you see. And 
 just so I got that red spotted flannel dress I wore last win- 
 ter. It was moth-eaten in one or two places, and I made 
 them let me have it at half-price ; made exactly as good a 
 dress. But after all, Mara, I can't trim a bonnet as jou cos, 
 and I can't corne up to your embroidery, nor your lace- work, 
 UOP.I can't draw and paint as you can, and I can't sing like 
 you ; and then as to all those things you talk with Mr. 
 Sewell about, why they're beyond my depth, that's all 
 I Vc got to say. Now, you are made to have poetry writter 
 ( o you, and all that kind of thing one reads of in novels 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. TJU 
 
 Nobody would ever think of writing poetry to me, now, or 
 sending me flowers and rings, and such things. If a fellow 
 likes me, he gives me a quince, or a big apple ; but, then, 
 Mara, there a'n't any fellows round here that are fit to speak 
 lo." 
 
 "I'm sure, Sally, there always is a train following you 
 everywhere, at singing-school and Thursday lecture." 
 
 " Yes but what do I care for 'em ? " said Sally, with a 
 toss of her head. " Why they follow me, I don't see. I 
 don't do anything to make 'em, and I tell 'em all that they 
 tire me to death ; and still they will hang round. What is 
 the reason, do you suppose ? " 
 
 " What can it be ?" said Mara, with a quiet kind of arch 
 drollery which suffused her face, as she bent over her paint- 
 ing. 
 
 " Well, you know I can't bear fellows I think they are 
 hateful." 
 
 "What! even Tom Hiers?" said Mara, continuing her 
 painting. 
 
 " Tom Hiers ! Do you suppose I care for him ? lie 
 would insist on waiting on me round all last winter, taking 
 me over in his boat to Portland, and up in his sleigh to 
 Brunswick; but I did n't care for him." 
 
 " Well, there 's Jimmy Wilson, up at Brunswick." 
 
 " What ! that little snip of a clerk ! You don't suppose 
 1 rare for him, do you ? only he almost runs his head off 
 following me round when I go up there shopping ; he '8 
 nothing but a little dressed-up yard-stick ! I never saw a 
 fellow yet that I 'd cross the street to have another look at. 
 By the by, Mara, Miss Roxy told me Sunday that Moses 
 was coming down from Umbagog this week." 
 
 "Yes, he is," said Mara; "we are looking for him every 
 day." 
 
200 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 You must want to see him. How long is it since yo 
 saw him ? " 
 
 " It is three years," said Mara. " i scarcely know whal 
 he is like now. I was visiting in Boston when he came 
 home from his three-years' voyage, and he was gone into the 
 lumbering country when I came back. He seems almost a 
 Etranger to me." 
 
 " He 's pretty good-looking," said Sally. " I saw him on 
 Sunday when he was here, but he was off on Monday, and 
 never called on old friends. Does he write to you often ? " 
 
 " Not very," said Mara ; " in fact, almost never ; and 
 when he does there is so little in his letters." 
 
 " Well, I tell you, Mara, you must not expect fellows to 
 write as girls can. They don't do it. Now, our boys, 
 when they write home, they tell the latitude and longitude, 
 and soil and productions, and such things. But if you or I 
 were only there, don't you think we should find something 
 more to say ? Of course we should, fifty thousand little 
 things that they never think of." 
 
 Mara made no reply to this, but went on very intently 
 with her painting. A close observer might have noticed a 
 suppressed sigh that seemed to retreat far down into her 
 heart. Sally did not notice it. 
 
 What was in that sigh ? It was the sigh of a long, deep 
 inner history, unwritten and untold such as are transpir- 
 ing daily by thousands, and of which we take no heed. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAXD. 201 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 WE have introduced Mara to our readers as she appears 
 in her seventeenth year, at the time when she is expecting 
 the return of Moses as a young man of twenty ; but we can- 
 not do justice to the feelings which are roused in her heart 
 by this expectation, without giving a chapter or two to tra- 
 cing the history of Moses since we left him as a boy com- 
 mencing the study of the Latin grammar with Mr. Sewell. 
 The reader must see the forces that acted upon his early 
 development, and what they have made of him. 
 
 It is common for people who write treatises on education 
 to give forth their rules and theories with a self-satisfied air, 
 as if a human being were a thing to be made up, like a 
 batch of bread, out of a given number of materials combined 
 by an infallible recipe. 
 
 Take your child, and do thus and so for a given number 
 of years, and he comes out a thoroughly educated individual. 
 
 But in fact, education is in many cases nothing more than 
 a blind struggle of parents and guardians with the evolutions 
 of some strong, predetermined character, individual, ob- 
 stinate, unreceptive, and seeking by an inevitable law of its 
 being to develop itself and gain free expression in its own 
 way. Captain Kittridge's confidence that he would as soon 
 undertake a boy as a Newfoundland pup, is good for those 
 whose idea of what is to be done for a, human being are 
 9nly what would be done for a dog, namely, give food, 
 9* 
 
202 THE PEARL OF ORR S ISLAND 
 
 Bhelter, and world-room, and leave each to act out his own 
 nature without let or hindrance. 
 
 But everybody takes an embryo human being with some 
 plan of one's own what it shall do or be. The child's future 
 shall shape out some darling purpose or plan, and fullil some 
 long unfulfilled expectation of the parent. And thus, though 
 the wind of every generation sweeps its hopes and plans lika 
 forest-leaves, none are whirled and tossed with more piteous 
 moans than those which come out green and fresh to shade 
 the happy spring-time of the cradle. 
 
 For the temperaments of children are often as oddly un- 
 euited to parents as if capricious fairies had been filling 
 cradles with changelings. 
 
 A meek member of the Peace Society, a tender, devout, 
 poetical clergyman, receives an heir from heaven, and 
 straightway devotes him to the Christian ministry. But lo ! 
 the boy proves a young war-horse, neighing for battle, burn- 
 ing for gunpowder and guns, for bowie-knives and revolvers, 
 and for every form and expression of physical force ; he 
 might make a splendid trapper, an energetic sea-captain, a 
 bold, daring military man, but his whole boyhood is full of 
 rebukes and disciplines for sins which are only the blind 
 effort of the creature to express a nature which his parent 
 does not and cannot understand. So again, the son that waa 
 to have upheld the old, proud merchant's time-honored firm, 
 that should have been mighty in ledgers and great upon 
 'Change, breaks his father's heart by an unintelligible fancy 
 for weaving poems and romances. A father of literary aspi- 
 rations, balked of privileges of early education, bends over 
 the cradle of his son with but one idea. This child shall 
 have the full advantages of regular college-training ; and s 
 for years he battles with a boy abhorring study, and fitted 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 203 
 
 only for a life of out-door energy and bold adventure, on 
 whom Latin forms and Greek quantities fall and melt aimless 
 and useless, as snow-flakes on the hide of a buffalo. Then 
 the secret agonie?, the long years of sorrowful watdrings 
 of those gentler nurses of humanity who receive the infant 
 into their bosom out of the void unknown, and strive to read 
 its horoscope through the mists of their prayers and teara ! 
 what perplexities, what confusion ! Especially is thij 
 jo in a community where the moral and religious sense i.s so 
 eultivated as in New England, and frail, trembling, self-dis- 
 trustful mothers are told that the shaping and ordering not 
 only of this present life, but of an immortal destiny, is in 
 their hands. 
 
 On the whole, those who succeed best in the rearing of 
 children, are the tolerant and easy persons who instinctively 
 follow nature and accept without much inquiry whatever 
 she sends ; or that far smaller class, wise to discern spirits 
 and apt to &<!opt means to their culture and development, 
 who can prudently and carefully train every nature accord- 
 ing to its true and characteristic ideal. 
 
 Zephaniah Fennel was a shrewd old Yankee, whose in- 
 stincts taught him from the first, that the waif that had 
 been so mysteriously washed out of the gloom of the sea into 
 his family, was of some different class and lineage from that 
 which might have filled a cradle of his own, and of a nature 
 which he could not perfectly understand. So he prudentlj 
 watched and waited, only using restraint enough to keep 
 the boy anchored in society, and letting him otherwise grow 
 up in the solitary freedom of his lonely seafaring life. 
 
 The boy was from childhood, although singularly attrac- 
 tive, of a moody, fitful, unrestful nature, eager, earnest, 
 but unsteady, \v;th varying phases of imprudent frankness 
 
804 THE PEARL OF OKK'S ISLAND. 
 
 and of the most stubborn and unfathomable secret iveness, 
 He was a creature of unreasoning antipathies and attrac- 
 tions. As Zephaniah Fennel said of him, he was as full of 
 hitches as an old bureau drawer. 
 
 His peculiar beauty, and a certain electrical power of at- 
 traction, seemed to form a constant circle of protection and 
 forgiveness around him in the home of his foster-parents $ 
 and great as was the anxiety and pain which he often gave 
 them, they somehow never felt the charge of him as a 
 weariness. 
 
 We left him a boy beginning Latin with Mr. Sewell in 
 company with the little Mara. This arrangement progressed 
 prosperously for a time, and the good clergyman, all whose 
 ideas of education ran through the halls of a college, began to 
 have hopes of turning out a choice scholar. But when the 
 boy's ship of life came into the breakers of that narrow and 
 intricate channel which divides boyhood from manhood, the 
 difficulties that had always attended his guidance and man- 
 agement wore an intensified form. How much family hap- 
 piness is wrecked just then and there ! How many mothers' 
 and sisters' hearts are broken in the wild and confused toss- 
 ings and tearings of that stormy transition ! 
 
 A whole new nature is blindly upheaving itself, with crav- 
 ings and clamorings, which neither the boy himself nor often 
 surrounding friends understand. 
 
 A shrewd observer has significantly characterized the 
 period as the time when the boy wishes he were dead, and 
 everybody else wishes so too. The wretched, half-fledged, 
 half-conscious, anomalous creature has all the desires of the 
 man, and none of the rights ; has a double and triple share 
 of nervous edge and intensity in every part of his nature 
 ind no definitely perceived objects on which to bestow it, -~ 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 205 
 
 and, of course, all sorts of unreasonable moods and phases 
 are the result. 
 
 One of the most common signs of this period, in some 
 natures, is the love of contradiction and opposition, a blind 
 desire to go contrary to everything that is commoi.ly re- 
 ceived among the older people. The boy disparages the min- 
 ister, quizzes the deacon, thinks the school- master an ass, and 
 does n't believe in the Bible, and seems to be rather pleased 
 than otherwise with the shock and flutter that all these an- 
 nouncements create among peaceably disposed grown people. 
 No respectable hen that ever hatched out a brood of ducks, 
 was more puzzled what to do with them than was poor Mrs. 
 Fennel when her adopted nursling came into this state. 
 Was he a boy? an immortal soul? a reasonable human 
 being? or only a handsome goblin sent to torment her? 
 
 " What shall we do with him, father ? " said she, one 
 Sunday, to Zephaniah, as he stood shaving before the little 
 looking-glass in their bedroom. " He can't be governed 
 like a child, and he won't govern himself like a man.'* 
 
 Zephaniah stopped and strapped his razor reflectively. 
 
 " We must cast out anchor and wait for day," he an- 
 swered. " Prayer is a long rope with a strong hold." 
 
 It was just at this critical period of life that Moses Pen- 
 nel was drawn into associations which awoke the alarm of 
 all liis friends, and from which the characteristic wilfumess 
 of his nature made it difficult to attempt to extricate him. 
 
 In order that our readers may fully understand this part 
 of our history, we must give some few particulars as to the 
 peculiar scenery of Orr's Island and the state of the country 
 Bt this time. 
 
 The coast of Maine, as we have elsewhere said, is remark- 
 able for a singular interpenetration of the soa with the iand 
 
206 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 forming amid its dense primeval forests secluded bays, nar* 
 row and deep, into which vessels might float with the tide, 
 and where they might nestle unseen and unsuspected amid 
 the dense shadows of the overhanging forest. 
 
 At this time there was a very brisk business done all 
 along the coast of Maine in the way of smuggling. Small 
 vessels, lightly built and swift of sail, would run up into 
 these sylvan fastnesses, and there make their deposits and 
 transact their business so as entirely to elude the vigilance 
 of government officers. 
 
 It may seem strange that practices of this kind should 
 ever have obtained a strong foothold in a community pecul- 
 iar for its rigid morality and its orderly submission to law ; 
 but in this case, as in many others, contempt of law grew 
 out of weak and unworthy legislation. The celebrated 
 embargo of Jefferson stopped at once the whole trade of 
 New England, and condemned her thousand ships to rot 
 at the wharves, and caused the ruin of thousands of fam- 
 ilies. 
 
 The merchants of the country regarded this as a flagrant, 
 high-handed piece of injustice, expressly designed to cripple 
 New England commerce, and evasions of this unjust law 
 found everywhere a degree of sympathy, even in the breasts 
 of well-disposed and conscientious people. In resistance to 
 the law, vessels were constantly fitted out which ran upon 
 trading voyages to the West Indies and other places ; and 
 although the practice was punishable as smuggling, yet it 
 found extensive connivance. From this beginning smug- 
 gling of all kinds gradually grew up in the community, and 
 gained such a foothold that even after the repeal of the 
 embargo it still continued to be extensively practised. Se 
 jret depositories of contraband goods still existed in man? 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 2C7 
 
 of the ttnely haunts of islands off the coast of Maine. Hid 
 in deep forest shadows, visited only in the darkness of the 
 night, were these illegal stores of merchandise. And from 
 these secluded resorts they found their way, no one knew 
 or cared to say how, into houses for miles around. 
 
 There was no doubt that the practice, like all other illegal 
 ones, was demoralizing to the community, and particularly 
 fatal to the character of that class of bold, enterprising 
 young men who would be most likely to be drawn into 
 it. 
 
 Zephaniah Fennel, who was made of a kind of straight- 
 grained, uncompromising oaken timber such as built the 
 Mayflower of old, had always borne his testimony at home 
 and abroad against any violations of the laws of the land, 
 however veiled under the pretext of righting a wrong or 
 resisting an injustice, and had done what he could in his 
 neighborhood to enable government officers to detect and 
 break up these unlawful depositories. This exposed him 
 particularly to the hatred and ill-will of the operators con- 
 cerned in such affairs, and a plot was laid by a few of the 
 most daring and determined of them to establish one of their 
 depositories on Orr's Island, and to implicate the family oi 
 Fennel himself in the trade. This would accomplish two 
 purposes, as they hoped, it would be a mortification and 
 defeat to him, a revenge which they coveted ; and it 
 would, they thought, insure his silence and complicity for 
 the strongest reasons. 
 
 The situation and characteristics of Orr's Island pecul- 
 iarly fitted it for the carrying out of a scheme of this kind, 
 . and for this purpose we must try to give our readers a 
 more definite idea of it. 
 
 The traveller who wants a ride through scenery of more 
 
208 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 varied and singular beauty than can ordinarily be found on 
 the shores of any land whatever, should start some fine clear 
 day along the clean sandy road, ribboned with strips of 
 green grass, that leads through the flat pitch-pine forests 
 of Brunswick toward the sea. As he approaches the salt 
 water, a succession of the most beautiful and picturesque 
 lakes seems to be lying softly cradled in the arms of wild, 
 rocky forest shores, whose outlines are ever changing with 
 the windings of the road. 
 
 At a distance of about six or eight miles from Brunswick 
 he crosses an arm of the sea, and comes upon the first of 
 Ihe interlacing group of islands which beautifies the shore. 
 A ride across this island is a constant succession of pictures, 
 whose wild and solitary beauty entirely distances all power 
 of description. The magnificence of the evergreen forests, 
 their peculiar air of sombre stillness, the rich inter- 
 mingling ever and anon of groves of birch, beech, and oak, 
 in picturesque knots and tufts, as if set for effect by some 
 skilful landscape-gardener, produce a sort of strange 
 dreamy wonder ; while the sea, breaking forth both on the 
 right hand and the left of the road into the most romnntk 4 . 
 glimpses, seems to flash and glitter like some strange gem 
 which every moment shows itself through the framework 
 of a new setting. Here and there little secluded coves push 
 in from the sea, around which lie soft 'tracts of green mead- 
 ow-land, hemmed in and guarded by rocky pine-crowned 
 ridges. In such sheltered spots may be seen neat white 
 houses, nestling like sheltered doves in the beautiful soli- 
 tude. 
 
 When one has ridden nearly to the end of Great Island, 
 which is about four miles across, he sees rising before him, 
 from the sea, a bold romantic point of land, uplifting a 
 
THE PEARL OF GRITS ISLAND. 209 
 
 crown of rich evergreen and forest trees over shores of per- 
 pendicular rock. This is Orr's Inland. 
 
 It was not an easy matter in the days of our past expe- 
 rience to guide a horse and carriage down the steep, wild 
 shores of Great Island to the long bridge that connects it with 
 Orr's. The sense of wild seclusion reaches here the highest 
 degree; and one crosses the bridge with a feeling as if genii 
 might have built it, and one might be going over it to 
 fairy-land. From the bridge the path rises on to a high 
 granite ridge, which runs from one end of the island to the 
 other, and has been called the Devil's Back, with that super- 
 stitious generosity which seems to have abandoned all roman- 
 tic places to so undeserving an owner. 
 
 By the side of this ridge of granite is a deep, narrow 
 chasm, running a mile and a half or two miles parallel with 
 the road, and veiled by the darkest and most solemn shadows 
 of the primeval forest. Here scream the jays and the eagles, 
 and fish-hawks make their nests undisturbed ; and the tide 
 rises and falls under black branches of evergreen, from which 
 depend long, light festoons of delicate gray moss. The dark- 
 ness of the forest is relieved by the delicate foliage and the 
 silvery trunks of the great white birches, which the solitude 
 of centuries has allowed to grow in this spot to a height and 
 size seldom attained elsewhere. 
 
 It was this narrow, rocky cove that had been chosen by 
 the smuggler Atkinson and his accomplices as a safe and 
 secluded resort for their operations. He was a sea-faring 
 man of Bath, one of that class who always prefei uncertain 
 and doubtful courses to those which are safe and reputable 
 He was possessed of many of those traits calculated to make 
 him a hero in the eyes of young men ; was dashing, free, 
 and frank in his manners, with a fund of humor and ai* 
 
210 THE PEARL OF URR'S ISLAND. 
 
 abundance of ready anecdote which made his society fas 
 cinating; but he concealed beneath all these attractions a 
 character of hard, grasping, unscrupulous selfishness, and 
 an utter destitution of moral principle. 
 
 Moses, now in his sixteenth year, and supposed to be in a 
 general way doing well, under the care of the minister, waa 
 left free to come and go at his own pleasure, unwatched by 
 Zephaniah, whose fishing operations often took him for weeks 
 from home. 
 
 Atkinson hung about the boy's path, engaging him first in 
 fishing or hunting enterprises; plied him with choice prep- 
 arations of liquor, with which he would enhance the hilarity 
 of their expeditions ; and finally worked on his love of 
 adventure and that impatient restlessness incident to his 
 period of life to draw him fully into his schemes. Moses 
 lost all interest in his lessons, often neglecting them for days 
 at a time accounting for his negligence by excuses which 
 were far from satisfactory. When Mara would expostulate 
 with him about this, he would break out upon her with a 
 fierce irritation. Was he always going to be tied to a girl's 
 apron-string ? He was tired of study, and tired of old 
 Sewell, whom he declared an old granny in a white wig, 
 who krew nothing of the world. He was n't going to col- 
 lege it w.^s altogether too slow for him he was going to 
 see life and ppsh ahead for himself. 
 
 Mara's life during tiiis time was intensely wearing. A 
 frail, slender, delicate girl of thirteen, she carried a heart 
 prematurely old \r\th the most distressing responsibility of 
 mature life. Her love for Moses had always had in it a 
 large admixture of that maternal and care-taking element 
 which, in some shape or other qualifies the affection of 
 uroinan to man. Ever ?'-; *ha l di ^air a" b*.byh#K>J, 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 211 
 
 the vision of a pale mother had led the beautiful boy to her 
 arms, Mara had accepted him as something exclusively her 
 own, with an intensity of ownership that seemed almost to 
 merge her personal identity with his. She felt, and saw, 
 and enjoyed, and suffered in him, and yet was conscious of a 
 higher nature in herself, by which unwillingly he was often 
 judged and condemned. His faults affected her with a kind 
 of guilty pain, as if they were her own ; his sins were borne 
 bleeding in her heart in silence, and with a jealous watch- 
 fulness to hide them from every eye but hers. She busied 
 herself day and night interceding and making excuses for 
 him, first to her own sensitive moral nature, and then with 
 everybody around, for with one or another he was coming 
 into constant collision. She felt at this time a fearful load 
 of euspicion, which she dared not express to a human being. 
 
 Up to this period she had always been the only confidant 
 of Moses, who poured into her ear without reserve all the 
 good and the evil of his nature, and who loved her with all 
 the intensity with which he was capable of loving anything. 
 Nothing so much shows what a human being is in moral 
 advancement as the quality of his love. Moses Fennel's 
 love was egotistic, exacting, tyrannical, and capricious 
 sometimes venting itself in expressions of a passionate fond- 
 ness, which had a savor of protecting generosity in them, 
 and then receding to the icy pole of surly petulance. For 
 all that, there was no resisting the magnetic attraction with 
 which in his amiable moods he drew those whom he liked to 
 himself. 
 
 Such people are not very wholesome companions for those 
 who are sensitively organized and predisposed to self sacrific- 
 ing love. They keep the heart in a perpetual freeze and 
 thaw, which, like the American northern climate, is so par- 
 
212 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 iicularly fatal to plants of a delicate habit. They could live 
 through the hot summer and the cold winter, but they can- 
 not endure the three or four months when it freezes one day 
 and melts the next, when all the buds are started out by a 
 week of genial sunshine, and then frozen for a fortnight. 
 These fitful persons are of all others most engrossing, be- 
 cause you are always sure in their good moods that they are 
 just going to be angels, an expectation which no number 
 of disappointments seems finally to do away. Mara believed 
 in Moses' future as she did in her own existence. He was 
 going to do something great and good, that she was certain 
 of. He would be a splendid man ! Nobody, she thought, 
 knew him as she did ; nobody could know how good and 
 generous he was sometimes, and how frankly he would con- 
 fess his faults, and what noble aspirations he had ! 
 
 But there was no concealing from her watchful sense that 
 Moses was beginning to have secrets from her. He was 
 cloudy and murky ; and at some of the most harmless in- 
 quiries in the world, would flash out with a sudden temper, 
 as if she had touched some sore spot. 
 
 Her bedroom was opposite to his ; and she became quite 
 sure that night after night, while she lay thinking of him, 
 she heard him steal down out of the house between two and 
 three o'clock, and not return till a little before day-dawn. 
 Where he went, and with whom, and what he was doing, 
 was to her an awful mystery, and it was one she dared 
 not share with a human being. If she told her kind old 
 grandfather, she feared that any inquiry from him would 
 only light as a spark on that inflammable spirit of pride and 
 insubordination that was rising within him, and bring on an 
 instantaneous explosion. Mr. Sewell's influence she could 
 hope litlle more from ; and as to poor Mrs. Fennel, such 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 213 
 
 communications would only weary and distress her, without 
 doing any manner of good. There was, therefore, only that 
 one unfailing Confidant the Invisible Friend to whom the 
 solitary child could pour out her heart, and whose inspira- 
 tions of comfort and guidance never fail to come again in 
 return to true souls. 
 
 One moonlight night, as she lay thus praying, her senses, 
 sharpened by watching, discerned a sound of steps treading 
 under her window, and then a low whistle. Her heart beat 
 violently, and she soon heard the door of Moses' room 
 open, and then the old chamber-stairs gave forth those incon- 
 siderate creaks and snaps that garrulous old stairs always 
 will when anybody is desirous of making them accomplices 
 in a night-secret. Mara rose, and undrawing her curtain, 
 saw three men standing before the house, and saw Moses 
 come out and join them. Quick as thought she threw on 
 her clothes, and wrapping her little form in a dark cloak, 
 with a hood, followed them out. She kept at a safe distance 
 behind them, so far back as just to keep them in sight. 
 They never looked back, arid seemed to say but little till 
 they approached the edge of that deep belt of forest which 
 shrouds so large a portion of the island. She hurried along, 
 now nearer to them lest they should be lost to view in the 
 deep shadows, while they went on crackling and plunging 
 through the dBnse underbrush. 
 
211 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 IT was well for Mara that so much of her life had bcefl 
 passed in wild forest rambles. She looked frail as the rays 
 of moonbeam which slid down the old white-bearded hem- 
 locks, but her limbs were agile and supple as steel ; and 
 while the party went crashing on before, she followed with 
 such lightness that the slight sound of her movements was 
 entirely lost in the heavy crackling plunges of the party. 
 Her little heart was beating fast and hard ; but could any 
 one have seen her face, as it now and then came into a spot 
 of moonshine, they might have seen it fixed in a deadly ex- 
 pression of resolve and determination. She was going after 
 him no matter where ; she was resolved to know who and 
 what it was that was leading him away, as her heart told 
 her, to no good. Deeper and deeper into the shadows of 
 the forest they went, and the child easily kept up with them. 
 
 Mara had often rambled for whole solitary days in this 
 lonely wood, and knew all its rocks and dells the whole 
 three miles to the long bridge at the other end of the island. 
 But she had never before seen it under the solemn stillness 
 of midnight moonlight, which gives to the most familiar ob' 
 jects such a strange, ghostly charm. After they had gone A 
 mile into the forest, she could see through the black spruces 
 silver gleams of the sea, and hear, amid the whirr and swaj 
 of the pine-tops, the dash of the ever restless tide which 
 pushed up the long cove. It was at the full, as she coultf 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 215 
 
 discern with a rapid glance of her practised eye, expertly 
 versed in the knowledge of every change of the solitary 
 nature around. 
 
 And now the party began to plunge straight down the 
 rocky ledge of the Devil's Back, on which they had been 
 walking hitherto, into the deep ravine where lay the core. 
 It was a scrambling, precipitous way, over perpendicular 
 walls of rock, whose crevices furnished anchoring-places for 
 grand old hemlocks or silver-birches, and whose rough sides, 
 leathery with black flaps of lichen, were all tangled and in- 
 terlaced with thick netted bushes. 
 
 The men plunged down laughing, shouting, and swearing 
 at their occasional missteps, and silently as moon-beam or 
 thistle-down the light-footed shadow went down after them. 
 
 She suddenly paused behind a pile of rock, as, through an 
 opening between two great spruces, the sea gleamed out like 
 a sheet of looking-glass set in a black frame. And here the 
 child saw a small vessel swinging at anchor, with the moon- 
 light full on its slack sails, and she could hear the gentle 
 gurgle and lick of the green-tongued waves as they dashed 
 under it toward the rocky shore. 
 
 Mara stopped with a beating heart as she saw the com- 
 pany making for the schooner. The tide is high ; will they 
 go on board and sail away with him where she cannot fol- 
 low ? What could she do ? In an ecstasy of fear she 
 kneeled down and asked God not to let him go, to give 
 her at least one more chance to save him. 
 
 For the pure and pious child had heard enough of the 
 tfords of these men, as she walked behind them, to fill her 
 with horror. She had never before heard an oath, but 
 there came back from these men coarse, brutal tones and 
 words of blasphemy thaf froze her blood with horror. And 
 
216 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Moses was going with them ! She felt somehow as if the} 
 must be a company of fiends bearing him to his ruin. 
 
 For some time she kneeled there watching behind the 
 rock, while Moses and his companions went on board the lit- 
 tle schooner. She had no feeling of horror at the loneliness 
 of her own situation, for her solitary life had made every 
 woodland thing dear and familiar to her. She was cowering 
 down on a loose, spongy bed of moss, which was all threaded 
 through and through with the green vines and pale pink 
 blossoms of the may flower, and she felt its fragrant breath 
 steaming up in the moist moonlight. As she leaned forward 
 to look through a rocky crevice, her arms rested on a bed of 
 that brittle white moss she had often gathered with so much 
 admiration, and a scarlet rock-columbine, such as she loved 
 to paint, brushed her cheek, and all these mute fair things 
 seemed to strive to keep her company in her chill suspense 
 of watchfulness. Two whippoorwills, from a clump of sil- 
 very birches, kept calling to each other in melancholy iter- 
 ation, while she staid there still listening, and knowing by 
 an occasional sound of laughing, or the explosion of some 
 oath, that the men were not yet gone. At last they all ap- 
 peared again, and came to a cleared place among the dry 
 \eaves, quite near to the rock where she was concealed, and 
 kindled a fire, which they kept snapping and crackling by a 
 constant supply of green resinous hemlock branches. 
 
 The red flame danced and leaped through the green fuel, 
 and leaping upward in tongues of flame, cast ruddy bronze 
 reflections on the old pine-trees with their long branches wav- 
 ing with beards of white moss, and by the firelight Mara 
 could see two men in sailor's dress with pistols in their belts, 
 and the man Atkinson, whom she had recollected as having 
 seen once or twice at her grandfather's. She remembered 
 
THE PKARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 217 
 
 how she had always shrunk from him with a strange instinc- 
 tive dislike, half fear, half disgust, when he had addressed 
 her with that kind of free admiration, which men of his class 
 often feel themselves at liberty to express to a pretty girl of 
 her early age. He was a man that might have been hand- 
 some, had it not been for a certain strange expression of 
 covert wickedness. It was as if some vile evil spirit, walk- 
 ing, as the Scriptures say, through dry places, had lighted 
 oc a comely man's body, in which he had set up house-keep- 
 ing, making it look like a fair house abused by an unclean 
 owner. 
 
 As Mara watched his demeanor with Moses, she could 
 think only of a loathsome black snake that she had once 
 seen in those solitary rocks ; she felt as if his handsome 
 but evil eye were charming him with an evil charm to his 
 destruction. 
 
 " Well, Mo, my boy," she heard him say, slapping 
 Moses on the shoulder, " this is something like. We '11 
 have a ' tempus,' as the college fellows say, put down the 
 clams to roast, and I '11 mix the punch," he said, setting over 
 the fire a tea-kettle which they brought from the ship. 
 
 After their preparations were finished, all sat down to eat 
 and drink. Mara listened with anxiety and horror to a con- 
 versation such as she never heard or conceived before. It 
 is not often that women hear men talk in the undisguised 
 manner which they use among themselves ; but the conver- 
 sation of men of unprincipled lives, and low, brutal habits, 
 unchecked by the presence of respectable female society, 
 might well convey to the horror-struck child a feeling as if 
 she were listening at the mouth of hell. Almost every word 
 was preceded or emphasized by an oath ; and what struck 
 with a death chill to her heart was, that Moses swore too. 
 10 
 
218 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 and seemed to show that desperate anxiety to seem an fail 
 in the language of wickedness, which boys often do at that 
 age, when they fancy that to be ignorant of vice is a 
 mark of disgraceful greenness. Moses evidently was bent 
 on showing that he was not green, ignorant of the pure 
 ear to which every such word came like the blast of death. 
 
 lie drank a great deal, too, and the mirth among them 
 giew furious and terrific. Mara, horrified and shocked a& 
 she was, did not, however, lose that intense and alert pres- 
 ence of mil d, natural to persons in whom there is moral 
 strength, however delicate be their physical frame. She 
 felt at once that these men were playing upon Moses ; that 
 they had an object in view ; that they were flattering and 
 cajoling him, and leading him to drink, that they might work 
 out some fiendish purpose of their own. The man called 
 Atkinson related story after story of wild adventure, in 
 which sudden fortunes had been made by men who, he said, 
 were not afraid to take " the short cut across lots." He told 
 of piratical adventures in the West Indies, of the fun of 
 chasing and overhauling ships, and gave dazzling ac- 
 counts of the treasures found on board. It was observable 
 that all these stories were told on the line between joke and 
 earnest, as frolics, as specimens of good fun, and seeing 
 life, etc. 
 
 At last came a suggestion, What if they should start off 
 together some fine day "just for a spree," and try a cruise 
 in the West Indies, to see what they could pick up ? They 
 had arms, and a gang of fine, whole-souled fellows. Moses 
 had been tied to Ma'am Fennel's apron-string long enough. 
 And " hark ye," said one of them, " Moses, they say old 
 fennel has lots of dollars in that old sea-chest of his'n. L 
 would be a kindc^ss to him to invest them for him in at 
 Adventure." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 210 
 
 answered with a streak of the boy innocence which 
 often remains under the tramping of evil men, like ribbons 
 of green turf in the middle of roads : 
 
 " You don't know Father Fennel, why, he 'd no more 
 come into it than " 
 
 A perfect roar of laughter cut short this declaration, and 
 Atkinson, slapping Moses on the back, said, 
 
 " By , Mo ! you are the jolliest green dog ! I shall 
 
 die a-laughing of your innocence some day. Why, my boy, 
 can't you see ? Fennel's money can be invested without 
 asking him." 
 
 " Why, he keeps it locked," said Moses. 
 
 " And supposing you pick the lock ? " 
 
 " Not T, indeed," said Moses, making a sudden movement 
 to rise. 
 
 Mara almost screamed in her ecstasy, but she had sense 
 enough to hold her breath. 
 
 " Ho ! see him now," said Atkinson, lying back, and hold- 
 ing his sides while he laughed, and rolled over ; " you can 
 get off anything on that muff, any hoax in the world, 
 he 's so soft ! Come, come, my dear boy, sit down. I was 
 only seeing how wide I could make you open those great 
 black eyes of your'n, that 's all." 
 
 " You 'd better take care how you joke with me," said 
 Moses, with that look of gloomy determination which Mara 
 was quite familiar with of old. It was the rallying effort of 
 ft boy who had abandoned the first outworks of virtue to 
 make a stand for the citadel. And Atkinson, like a prudent 
 besieger after a repulse, returned to lie on his arras. 
 
 He began talking volubly on other subjects, telling stories, 
 \nd singing songs, and pressing Moses to drink. 
 
 Mara was comforted to see that he declined drinking, 
 
220 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 that he looked gloomy and thoughtful, in spite of the jokes 
 of his companions ; but she trembled to see, by the follow 
 ing conversation, how Atkinson was skilfully and prudently 
 making apparent to Moses the extent to which he had him 
 in his power. He seemed to Mara like an ugly spider skil- 
 fully weaving his web around a fly. She felt cold and faint; 
 bat within her there was a heroic strength. 
 
 She was not going to faint ; she would make herself bear 
 op. She was going to do something to get Moses out of 
 this snare, but what ? At last they rose. 
 
 " It is past three o'clock," she heard one of them say. 
 
 " I say, Mo," said Atkinson, " you must make tracks for 
 home, or you won't be in bed when Mother Pennel calls 
 you." 
 
 The men all laughed at this joke as they turned to go on 
 board the schooner. 
 
 When they were gone, Moses threw himself down and hvd 
 his face in his hands. He knew not what pitying little face 
 was looking down upon him from the hemlock shadows, 
 what brave little heart was determined to save him. He 
 was in one of those great crises of agony that boys pass 
 through when they first awake from the fun and frolic of 
 unlawful enterprises to find themselves sold under sin, and 
 ieel the terrible logic of evil which constrains them to pass 
 from the less to greater crime. He felt that he was in the 
 power of bad, unprincipled, heartless men, who, if he refused 
 to do their bidding, had the power to expose him. All he 
 bad been doing would come out. His kind old foster-parents 
 A'ould know it. Mara would know it. Mr. Sewell and Misg 
 Emily would know the secrets of his life that past month 
 He felt as if they were all looking at him now. He had dis 
 graced himself, had sunk below his education, had been 
 
THE PEAjSL OF ORR S ISLANT). 221 
 
 false to all his better knowledge and the past expectations of 
 his friends, living a mean, miserable, dishonorable life, 
 and now the ground was fast sliding from under him, and the 
 next plunge might be down a precipice from which there 
 would be no return. What he had done up to this hour had 
 been done in the roystering, inconsiderate garnesomeness of 
 boyhood. It had been represented to himself only as " sow- 
 ing wild oats," u having steep times," " seeing a little of life," 
 and so on ; but this night he had had propositions of piracy 
 and robbery made to him, and he had not dared to knock 
 down the man that made them, had not dared at once to 
 break away from his company. He must meet him again, 
 must go on with him, or he groaned in agony at the thought. 
 It was a strong indication of that repressed, considerate 
 habit of mind which love had wrought in the child, that 
 when Mara heard the boy's sobs rising in the stillness, she 
 did not, as she wished to, rush out and throw her arms 
 around his neck and try to comfort him. 
 
 But she felt instinctively that she must not do this. She 
 must not let him know that she had discovered his secret by 
 stealing after him thus in the night shadows. She knew how 
 nervously he had resented even the compassionate glances 
 she had cast upon him in his restless, turbid intervals during 
 the past few weeks, and the fierceness with which he had 
 replied to a few timid inquiries. No, though her heart 
 was breaking for him, it was a shrewd, wise little heart, and 
 resolved not to spoil all by yielding to its first untaught im- 
 pulses. She repressed herself as the mother does who re- 
 frains from crying out when she sees her unconscious little 
 one on the verge of a precipice. 
 
 When Moses rose and moodily began walking homeward, 
 the follovred at a disfance. She could now keep farther off, 
 
222 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAXD. 
 
 for she knew the way through every part of the forest, ami 
 she only wanted to keep within sound of his footsteps tt 
 make sure that he was going home. 
 
 When he emerged from the forest into the open moonlight, 
 she sat down in its shadows and watched him as he walked 
 over the open distance between her and the house. He went 
 in ; and then she waited a little longer for him to be quite 
 retired. She thought he would throw himself on the bed, 
 and then she could steal in after him. So she sat there quite 
 in the shadows. 
 
 The grand full moon was riding high and calm in the pur- 
 ple sky, and Harpswell Bay on the one hand, and the wide, 
 open ocean on the other, lay all in a silver shimmer of light. 
 There was not a soun/ J . save the plash of the tide, now be- 
 ginning to go out, and rolling and rattling the pebbles up 
 and down as it came and went, and once in a while the dis- 
 tant, mournful intoning of the whippoorwill. There were 
 silent, lonely ships, sailing slowly to and fro far out to sea, 
 turning their fair wings now into bright light and now into 
 shadow, as they moved over the glassy stillness. Mara 
 could see all the hoises on Harpswell Neck and the white 
 church as clear as in the daylight. It seemed to her some 
 strange, unearthly dream. 
 
 As she sat there she thought over her whole little life, all 
 full of one thought, one purpose, one love, one prayer, for 
 this being so strangely given to her out of that silent sea, 
 which lay so like a still eternity around her, and she re- 
 volved again what meant the vision of her childhood. Did 
 it not mean that she was to watch over him and save him 
 from some dreadful danger ? That poor mother was lying 
 now silent and peaceful under the turf in the little graveyard 
 not far off, and she must care for her boy. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 223 
 
 A strong motherly feeling swelled out the girl's heart, 
 ihe felt that she must, she would, somehow save that treasure 
 which had so mysteriously been committed to her. 
 
 So, when she thought she had given time enough for 
 Moses to be quietly asleep in his room, she arose and 
 ran with quick footsteps across the moonlit plain to the 
 house. 
 
 The front-door was standing wide open, as was always tho 
 innocent fashion in these regions, with a half-angle of moon- 
 light and shadow lying within its dusky depth?. Mara 
 listened a moment, no sound: he had gone to bed thea, 
 " Poor boy," she said, " I hope he is asleep ; how he must 
 feel ! poor fellow. It 's all the fault of those dreadful men ! " 
 said the little dark shadow to herself, as she stole up the 
 stairs past his room as guiltily as if she were the sinner. 
 Once the stairs creaked, and her heart was in her mouth, 
 but she gained her room and shut and bolted the door. 
 
 She kneeled down by her little white bed, and thanked 
 God that she had come in safe, and then prayed him to 
 teach her what to do next. 
 
 She felt chilly and shivering, and crept into bed, and lay 
 ivith her great soft brown eyes wide open, intently thinking 
 what she should do. 
 
 Should she tell her grandfather ? Something instinctively 
 said No ; that the first word from him which showed Moses 
 he was detected, would at once send him off with those 
 wicked men. " He would never, never bear to have this 
 known," she said. Mr. Sewell ? ah, that was worse, 
 She herself shrank from letting him know what Moses had 
 been doing ; she could not bear to lower him so much in hia 
 eyes. He could not make allowances, she thought. He is 
 good to be sure but he is so old and grave, and doesn't 
 
224 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 know how much Moses has been tempted by these dreadful 
 men ; and then perhaps he would tell Miss Emily, and they 
 never would want Moses to come there any more. 
 
 " What shall I do ? " she said to herself. " I must gel 
 somebody to help me or tell me what to do. I can't tell 
 grandmamma ; it would only make her ill, and she would n't 
 know what to do any more than I. Ah, I know what I will 
 do, I '11 tell Captain Kittridge ; he was always so kind to 
 me ; and he has been to sea and seen all sorts of men, and 
 Moses won't care so much perhaps to have him know, be- 
 cause the Captain is such a funny man, and don't take 
 everything so seriously. Yes, that's it. I'll go right 
 down to the cove in the morning. God will bring me 
 through, I know He will ; " and the little weary head fell 
 back on the pillow asleep. And as she slept, a smile set- 
 tled over her face, perhaps a reflection from the face of her 
 good angel, who always beholdeth the face of our Father in 
 Heaven. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORK'S ISLAND. 225 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MARA was so wearied with her night walk and the agita- 
 tion she had been through, that once asleep she slept long 
 after the early breakfast hour of the family. She was sur- 
 prised on awaking to hear the slow old clock down-stairs 
 striking eight. 
 
 She hastily jumped up and looked around with a confused 
 wonder, and then slowly the events of the past night came 
 back upon her like a remembered dream. She dressed 
 herself quickly, and went down to find the breakfast things 
 all washed and put away, and Mrs. Fennel spinning. 
 
 " "Why, dear heart," said the old lady, " how came you to 
 sleep so ? I spoke to you twice, but I could not make you 
 hear." 
 
 " Has Moses been down, grandma ? " said Mara, intent on 
 the sole thought in her heart. 
 
 " Why, yes, dear, long ago, and cross enough he was ; 
 that boy does get to be a trial, but come, dear, I 've 
 taved some hot cakes for you, sit down now and eat 
 your breakfast." 
 
 Mara made a feint of eating what her grandmother with 
 fond officiousness would put before her, and then rising up 
 die put on her sun-bonnet and started down toward the cove 
 to find her old friend. 
 
 The queer, dry, lean old Captain had been to her all her 
 life like a faithful kobold or brownie, an unquestioning sei> 
 10* 
 
226 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 rant of all her gentle biddings. She dared tell him any 
 thing without diffidence or shamefacedness ; and she felt that 
 in this trial of her life he might have in his sea-receptacle 
 some odd old amulet or spell that should be of power to help 
 her. Instinctively she avoided the house, lest Sally should 
 see and fl} out and seize her. She took a narrow path 
 through the cedars down to the little boat cove where the 
 old Captain worked so merrily ten years ago, in the begin 
 ning of our story, and where she found him now with his 
 coat off busily planing a board. 
 
 " Wai', now, if this 'ere don't beat all ! " he said, look- 
 ing up and seeing her ; " why, you 're looking after Sally, I 
 s'pose ? She 's up to the house." 
 
 " No, Captain Kittridge, I 'm come to see you." 
 
 ' You be ? " said the Captain, " I swow ! if I a'n't a lucky 
 feller. But what 's the matter ? " he said, suddenly observ- 
 ing her pale face, and the tears in her eyes. " Ha' n't 
 nothin' bad happened, hes there ? " 
 
 " Oh ! Captain Kittridge, something dreadful ; and nobody 
 but you can help me." 
 
 " Want to know now ? " said the Captain, with a grave 
 face. " Well, come here now and sit down, and tell me all 
 about it. Don t you cry, there 's a good girl ! Don't now." 
 
 Mara began her story, and went through with it in a 
 rapid and agitated manner ; and the good Captain listened 
 in a fidgety state of interest, occasionally relieving his mind 
 by interjecting " Do tell now ! " "I swan, if that ar 
 a'n't too bad." 
 
 "That ar's rediculous conduct in Atkinson. He ought to 
 be talked to," said the Captain when she had finished, and 
 then he whistled and put a shaving in his mouth, which he 
 ehewed reflectively. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 227 
 
 ** Don't you be a mite worried, Mara," he said. " You 
 iid a, great deal better to co|fte to me than to go to Mr 
 Sewell or your grand'ther either ; 'cause you see these 'ere 
 wild chaps they '11 take things from me they would n't from 
 a church-member or a minister. Folks must n't pull 'em up 
 with too short a rein, they must kind o' flatter 'em off. 
 But that ar Atkinson 's too rediculous for anything ; and if 
 he don't mind, I '11 serve him out. I know a thing or two 
 about him that I shall shake over his head if he don't be- 
 have. Now I don't think so much of smugglin* as some 
 folks," said the Captain, lowering his voice to a confidential 
 tone. " I reely don't, now ; but come to goin' off piratin', 
 and tryin' to put a young boy up to robbin' his best 
 friends, why, there a'n't no kind o' sense in that. It 'a 
 p'ison mean of Atkinson. I shall tell him so, and I shall 
 talk to Moses." 
 
 " Oh ! I 'm afraid to have you," said Mara, apprehensively. 
 
 " Why, chickabiddy," said the old Captain, " you don't 
 understand me. I a'n't goin' at him with no sermons, I 
 shall jest talk to him this way : Look here now, Moses, I 
 shall say, there 's Badger's ship goin' to sail in a fortnight 
 for China, and they want likely fellers aboard, and I 've got 
 a hundred dollars that I 'd like to send on a venture ; if 
 you '11 take it and go, why, we '11 share the profits. I shall 
 talk like that, you know. Mebbe I sha' n't let him know 
 what I know, and mebbe I shall ; jest tip him a wink, you 
 know ; it depends on circumstances. But bless you, child, 
 these 'ere fellers a'n't none of 'em 'fraid o' me, you see, 
 'cause they know I know the ropes." 
 
 "And can you make that horrid man let him alone?" 
 Baid Mara, fearfully. 
 
 " Calculate I can. 'Spect if I s to tell Atkinson a fen 
 
228 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 things I knotf , he 'd be for bein' scase in our parts. Now, 
 you see, I ha' n't minded doin' a small bit o' trade now and 
 then with them ar fellers myself; but this 'ere," said the 
 Captain, stopping and looking extremely disgusted, " why, 
 it 's contemptible, it 's rediculous !"" 
 
 " Do you think I 'd better tell grandpapa ? " said Mara. 
 
 " Don't worry your little head. I '11 step up and have a 
 talk with Fennel this evening. He knows as well as I that 
 there is times when chaps must be seen to, and no remarks 
 made. Fennel knows that ar. Why, now, Mis' Kittridge 
 thinks our boys turned out so well all along of her bringin' 
 up, and I let her think so ; keeps her sort o' in spirits, you 
 see. But Lord bless ye, child, there 's been times with 
 Job, and Sam, and Fass, and Dass, and Dile, and all on 'era 
 finally, when, if I had n't jest pulled a rope here and turned 
 a screw there, and said nothin' to nobody, they 'd a-been all 
 gone to smash. I never told Mis' Kittridge none o' their 
 didos ; bless you, 't would n't been o' no use. I never told 
 them, neither ; but I jest kind o' worked 'em off, you know ; 
 and they 's all putty 'spectable men now, as men go, you 
 know ; not like Parson Sewell, but good, honest mates and 
 ship-masters, kind o' middlin' people, you know. It takes 
 a good many o' sich to make up a world, d' ye see." 
 
 " But oh, Captain Kittridge, did any of them use to 
 twear?" said Mara, in a faltering voice. 
 
 K Wai', they did consid'able," said the Captain ; then 
 Beeing the trembling of Mara's lip, he added, 
 
 " Ef you could a-found this 'ere out any other way, it 's 
 most a pity you 'd a-heard him ; 'cause he would n't never 
 have let out afore you. It don't do for gals to hear the 
 fellers talk when they 's alone, 'cause fellers, wal', you 
 gee, fellers will be fellers, partic'larly when they Y young 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 229 
 
 Some on em, they never gits over it all tneir lives 
 finally." 
 
 " But oh ! Captain Kittridge, that talk last night was so 
 dreadfully wicked ! and Moses ! oh, it was dreadful to 
 hear him!" 
 
 " Wai', yes, it was," said the Captain, consolingly ; " but 
 don't you cry and don't you break your little heart. I ex* 
 pect lie '11 come all right, and jine the church one of these 
 days ; 'cause there 's old Fennel, he prays, fact now, I 
 think there 's consicTable in some people's prayers, and he '3 
 one of the sort. And you pray, too ; and I 'm quite sure 
 the good Lord must hear you. I declare sometimes I wish 
 you 'd jest say a good word to Him for me ; I should like 
 to get the hang o' things a little better than I do somehow, 
 I reely should. I 've gi'n up swearing years ago. Mis' 
 Kittridge, she broke me o' that, and now I don't never go 
 further than ' I vum' or <I swow/ or somethin* o' that sort ; 
 but you see I 'm old ; Moses is young ; but then he 's got 
 eddication and friends, and he '11 come all right. Now you 
 jest see ef he don't ! " 
 
 This miscellaneous budget of personal experiences and 
 friendly consolation which the good Captain conveyed to 
 Mara may possibly make you laugh, my reader, but the 
 good, ropy brown man was doing his best to console his 
 little friend ; and as Mara looked at him he was almost 
 glorified in her eyes he had power to save Moses, and 
 he would do it. 
 
 She went home to dinner that day with her heart con- 
 siderably lightened. She refrained, in a guilty way, from 
 even looking at Moses, who was gloomy and moody. 
 
 Mara had from nature a good endowment of that kind of 
 innocent hypocrisy which is needed as a staple in the lives 
 
230 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 of women who bridge a thousand awful chasms with smiling> 
 unconscious looks, and walk, singing and scattering flowers, 
 over abysses of fear, while their hearts are dying within 
 them. 
 
 She talked more volubly than was her wont with Mrs. 
 Fennel, and with her old grandfather ; she laughed and 
 seemed in more than usual spirits, and only once did sho 
 look up and catch the gloomy eye of Moses. It had that 
 murky, troubled look that one may see in the eye of a boy 
 when those evil waters which cast up mire and dirt have 
 once been stirred in his soul. They fell under her clear 
 glance, and he made a rapid, impatient movement, as if 
 it hurt him to be looked at. The evil spirit in boy or man 
 cannot bear the " touch of celestial temper ; " and the sen- 
 sitiveness to eyebeams is one of the earliest signs of con- 
 scious, inward guilt. 
 
 Mara was relieved, as he ilung out of the house after din- 
 ner, to see the long, dry figure of Captain Kittridge coming 
 up and seizing Moses by the button. 
 
 From the window she saw the Captain assuming a con- 
 fidential air with him ; and when they had talked together 
 a few moments, she saw Moses going with great readiness 
 after him down the road to his house. 
 
 In less than a fortnight, it was settled Moses was to sail 
 fjr China, and Mara was deep in the preparations for his 
 outfit. Once she would have felt this departure as the most 
 dreadful trial of her life. Now it seemed to her a deliver- 
 ance for him, and she worked with a cheerful alacrity, which 
 seemed to Moses was more than was proper, considering ht 
 was going away. 
 
 For Moses, like many others of his sex, boy or man, had 
 quietly settled in his own mind that the whole love of 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR S ISLAND. 231 
 
 Mara's heart, was to be his, to have and to hold, to use and 
 lo draw on, when and as he liked. He reckoned on it as a 
 sort of inexhaustible, uncounted treasure that was his own 
 peculiar right and property, and therefore he felt abused at 
 what he supposed was a disclosure of some deficiency on her 
 part. 
 
 " You seem to be very glad to be rid of me," he said to 
 her in a bitter tone one day, as she was earnestly busy in 
 her preparations. 
 
 Now the fact was, that Moses had been assiduously mak- 
 ing himself disagreeable to Mara for the fortnight past, by 
 all sorts of unkind sayings and doings ; and he knew it too ; 
 yet he felt a right to feel very much abused at the thought 
 that she could possibly want him to be going. 
 
 If she had been utterly desolate about it, and torn her 
 nair and sobbed and wailed, he would have asked what she 
 c.ould be crying about, and begged not to be bored with 
 scenes; but as it was, this cheerful composure was quite 
 unfeeling. 
 
 Now pray don't suppose Moses to be a monster of an un- 
 common species. We take him to be an average specimen 
 of a boy of a certain kind of temperament in the transition 
 period of life. Everything is chaos within the flesh 
 lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, 
 and " light and darkness, and mind and dust, and passion 
 and pure thoughts, mingle and contend," without end or 
 order. 
 
 He wondered at himself sometimes that he could say 
 such cruel things as he did to his faithful little friend 
 to one whom, after all, he did love and trust before all other 
 human beings. 
 
 There is no saying why it is that a man or a boy, not 
 
232 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 radically destitute of generous comprehensions, will often 
 cruelly torture and tyrannize over a woman whom he 
 both loves and reveres who stands in his soul in his 
 best hours as the very impersonation of all that is good 
 and beautiful. 
 
 It is as if some evil spirit at times possessed him, and 
 compelled him to utter words which were felt at the mo- 
 ment to be mean and hateful. 
 
 Moses often wondered at himself, as he lay awake nights, 
 how he could have said and done the things he had, and felt 
 miserably resolved to make it up somehow before he went 
 away but he did not. 
 
 He could not say, " Mara, I have done wrong," though he 
 every day meant to do it, and sometimes sat an hour in her 
 presence, feeling murky and stony, as if possessed by a 
 dumb spirit then he would get up and fling stormily 
 out of the house. 
 
 Poor Mara wondered if he really would go without one 
 kind word. She thought of all the years they had been to- 
 gether, and how he had been her only thought and love. 
 
 What had become of her brother ? the Moses that once 
 she used to know frank, careless, not ill tempered, and 
 who sometimes seemed to love her and think she was the 
 best little girl in the world ? Where was he gone to this 
 friend and brother of her childhood, and would he never 
 come back ? 
 
 At last came the evening before his parting ; the sea-chest 
 was all mad3 up and packed ; and Mara's fingers had been 
 busy with everything, from more substantial garments down 
 to all those little comforts and nameless conveniences that 
 anly a woman knows how to improvise. Mara thought cer 
 tainly she should get a few kind words as Mose? looked i* 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 233 
 
 over. But he only said, " All right ; " and then added that 
 " there was a button off one of the shirts." Mara's busy 
 fingers quickly replaced it, and Moses was annoyed at the 
 tear that fell on the button. What was she crying for now ? 
 He knew very well, but he felt stubborn and cruel. After- 
 wards he lay awake many a night in his berth, and acted 
 this last scene over differently. He took Mara in his aims 
 and kissed her ; he told her she was his best friend, his good 
 angel, and that he was not worthy to kiss the hem of her 
 garment ; but the next day, when he thought of writing a 
 letter to her, he did n't, and the good mood passed away. 
 
 Boys do not acquire an ease of expression in letter-writ- 
 ing as early as girls, and a voyage to China furnished oppor- 
 tunities few and far between of sending letters. 
 
 Now and then, through some sailing ship, came missives 
 which seemed to Mara altogether colder and more unsatis- 
 factory than they would have done could she have appre- 
 ciated the difference between a boy and a girl in power of 
 epistolary expression ; for the power of really representing 
 one's heart on paper, which is one of the first spring flowers 
 of early womanhood, is the latest blossom on the slow grow- 
 ing tree of manhood. To do Moses justice, these seeming 
 cold letters were often written with a choking lump in his 
 throat, caused by thinking over his many sinj against his 
 little good angel; but then that past account was so long, 
 and had so much that it pained him to think of, that he 
 dashed it all off in the shortest fashion, and said to himself, 
 " One of these days when I see her I '11 make it all up. 3 * 
 
 No man especially one that is living a rough, busy, out- 
 of-doors life can form the slightest conception of thai 
 veiled and secluded life which exists in the heart of a sensi- 
 tive woman, whose sphere is narrow, whose external diver 
 
234 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 sions are few, and whose mind, therefore, acts by a continual 
 introversion upon itself. They know nothing how theif 
 careless words and actions are pondered and turned again in 
 weary, quiet hours of fruitless questioning. What did he 
 mean by this ? and what did he intend by that ? while he, 
 the careless buffalo, meant nothing, or has forgotten what it 
 was, if he did. 
 
 Man's utter ignorance of woman's nature is a cause of a 
 great deal of unsuspected cruelty which he practises toward 
 her. 
 
 Mara found one or two opportunities of writing to Moses ; 
 but her letters were timid and constrained by a sort of frosty, 
 discouraged sense of loneliness ; and Moses, though he knew 
 he had no earthly right to expect this to be otherwise, took 
 upon him to feel as an abused individual, whom nobody 
 loved whose way in the world was destined to be lonely 
 and desolate. So when, at the end of three years, he arrived 
 suddenly at Brunswick in the beginning of winter, and came 
 all burning with impatience to the home at Orr's Island, and 
 found that Mara had gone to Boston on a visit, he resented 
 it as a personal slight. 
 
 He might have inquired why she should expect him, and 
 whether her whole life was to be spent in looking out of the 
 window to watch for him. He might have remembered that 
 he had warned her of his approach by no letter. But no. 
 " Mara did n't care for him she had forgotten all about 
 him she was having a good time in Boston, just as likely 
 as not with some train of admirers, and he had been tossing 
 on the stormy ocean, and she had thought nothing of it." 
 
 How many things he had meant to say ! He had never 
 felt so good and so affectionate. He would have confessed 
 all the sins of his life to her, and asked her pardon and 
 she was n't there ! 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 235 
 
 Mrs. Fennel suggested that he might go to Boston after 
 her. 
 
 No, he was not going to do that. He would not intrude 
 on her pleasures with the memory of a rough, hard-working 
 Bailor. He was alone in the world, and had his o\vn way to 
 make, and so best go at once up among lumbermen, and cut 
 the timber for the ship that was to carry Caesar and his 
 fortunes. 
 
 When Mara was informed by a letter from Mrs. Pennel, 
 expressed in the few brief words in which that good woman 
 generally embodied her epistolary communications, that Mo- 
 ses had been at home, and gone to Umbagog without seeing 
 her, she felt at her heart only a little closer stricture of a 
 cold quiet pain, which had become a habit of her inner life. 
 
 " He did not love her he was cold and selfish," said 
 the inner voice. And faintly she pleaded, in answer, " He 
 is a man he has seen the world and has so much to do 
 and think of, no wonder." 
 
 In fact, during the last three years that had parted them, 
 the great change of life had been consummated in both. 
 They had parted boy and girl ; they would meet man and 
 woman. The time of this meeting had been announced. 
 
 And all this is the history of that sigh so very quiet 
 that Sally Kittridge never checked the rattling flo tr of hei 
 ronversation to observe it. 
 
236 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 WE have in the last three chapters brought up the history 
 of our characters to the time when our story opens, when 
 Mara and Sally Kittridge were discussing the expected re- 
 turn of Moses. 
 
 Sally was persuaded by Mara to stay and spend the night 
 with her, and did so without much fear of what her mother 
 would say when she returned ; for though Mrs. Kittridge 
 still made bustling demonstrations of authority, it was quite 
 evident to every one that the handsome grown-up girl had 
 got the sceptre into her own hands, and was reigning in the 
 full confidence of being, in one way or another, able to bring 
 her mother into all her views. 
 
 So Sally stayed to have one of those long night-talks in 
 which girls delight, in the course of which all sorts of inti- 
 macies and confidences, that shun the daylight, open like the 
 uight-blooming cereus in strange successions. 
 
 One often wonders by daylight at the things one say? 
 very naturally in the dark. 
 
 So the two girls talked about Moses, and Sally dilated 
 jpon his handsome, manly air the one Sunday that he had 
 appeared in Harpswell meeting-house. 
 
 " He did n't know me at all, if you '11 believe it," said 
 Sally. " I was standing with father when he came out, and 
 he shook hands with him, and looked at me as if I M been 
 an entire stranger." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 237 
 
 "I'm not in the least surprised," said Mara; "you're 
 grown so and altered." 
 
 " Well, now, you 'd hardly know him, Mara," said Sally. 
 " He is a man a real man ; everything about him is dif- 
 ferent ; he holds up his head in such a proud way. Well, 
 he always did that when he was a boy ; but when he speaks, 
 he has such a deep voice ! How boys do alter in a year or 
 
 " Do you think 1 have altered much, Sally ? " said Mara ; 
 u at least, do you think Tie would think so ? " 
 
 " Why, Mara, you and I have been together so much, I 
 can't tell. We don't notice what goes on before us every 
 day. I really should like to see what Moses Pennel will 
 think when he sees you. At any rate, he can't order you 
 about with such a grand air as he used to when you were 
 younger." 
 
 " I think sometimes he has quite forgotten about me," said 
 Mara. 
 
 " Well, if I were you, I should put him in mind of my- 
 self by one or two little ways," said Sally. " I 'd plague 
 him and tease him. I 'd lead him such a life that he could 
 n't forget me, that 's what I would." 
 
 " I don't doubt you would, Sally ; and he might like you 
 all the better for it. But you know that sort of thing is n't 
 my way. People must act in character." 
 
 " Do you know, Mara," said Sally, " I always thought 
 Moses was hateful in his treatment of you ? Now I 'd no 
 more marry that fellow than I 'd walk into the fire ; but it 
 would be a just punishment for his sins to hhve to marry 
 me ! Would n't I serve him out, though ! " 
 
 With which threat of vengeance on her mind Sally Kit- 
 tridge fell asleep, while Mara lay awake pondering, won 
 
238 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 tiering if Moses would come to-morrow, and what he would 
 be like if he did come. 
 
 The next morning, as the two girls were wiping breakfast 
 dishes in a room adjoining the kitchen, a step was heard on 
 the kitchen-floor, and the first that Mara knew she found 
 herself lifted from the floor in the arms of a tall dark-eyed 
 young man, who was kissing her just as if he had a right to. 
 She knew it must be Moses, but it seemed strange as a 
 dream, for all she had tried to imagine it beforehand. 
 
 Her kissed her over and over, and then holding her off at 
 arm's length, said, "Why, Mara, you have grown to be a 
 beauty ! " 
 
 " And what was she, I 'd like to know, when you went 
 away, Mr. Moses ? " said Sally, who could not long keep out 
 of a conversation. " She was handsome when you were 
 only a great ugly boy." 
 
 " Thank you, Miss Sally ! " said Moses, making a profound 
 b>w. 
 
 " Thank me for what ? * said Sally, with a toss. 
 
 " For your intimation that I am a handsome young man 
 now," said Moses, sitting with his arm around Mara, and her 
 Land in his. 
 
 And in truth he was as handsome now for a man as he 
 was in the promise of his early childhood. 
 
 All the oafishness and surly awkwardness of the half-boy 
 fieriod was gone. His great black eyes were clear and con- 
 fident : his dark hair clustering in short curls round his well- 
 shaped head ; his black lashes, and fine form, and a certain 
 confident ease of manner, set him off to the greatest advan- 
 tage. 
 
 Mara felt a peculiar dreamy sense of strangeness at this 
 brother who was not a brother, this Moses so different 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 239 
 
 from the one she had known. The very tone of his voice, 
 which when he left had the uncertain cracked notes which 
 indicate the unformed man, were now mellowed and settled. 
 
 Mara regarded him shyly as he talked, blushed uneasily, 
 and drew away from his arm around her, as if this hand- 
 some, self-confident young man were being too familiar. la 
 fact, she made apology to go out into the other room to call 
 Mrs. Fennel. 
 
 Moses looked after her as she went with admiration. 
 
 " What a little woman she has grown ! " he said, naively. 
 
 " And what did you expect she would grow ? " said Sally. 
 " You did n't expect to find her a girl in short clothes, did 
 you ? " 
 
 " Not exactly, Miss Sally," said Moses, turning his atten- 
 tion to her ; " and some other people are changed too." 
 
 " Like enough," said Sally, carelessly. " I should think 
 BO, since somebody never spoke a word to one the Sunday 
 he was at meeting." 
 
 " Oh, you remember that, do you ? On my word, Sal- 
 
 ]y- 
 
 " Miss Kittridge, if you please, sir," said Sally, turning 
 round with the air of an empress. 
 
 " Well, then, Miss Kittridge," said Moses, making a bow ; 
 u now let me finish my sentence. I never dreamed who you 
 were." 
 
 " Complimentary," said Sally, pouting. 
 
 " Well, hear me through," said Moses ; " you tad grown 
 BO handsome, Miss Kittridge." 
 
 " Oh ! that indeed ! I suppose you mean to say I was a 
 fright when you left ? " 
 
 " Not at all not af all," said Moses ; " but handsome 
 linings may grow handsomer, you know." 
 
MO THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 " I don t like flattery," said Sally. 
 
 " I never flatter, Miss Kittridge," said Moses. 
 
 Our young gentleman and young lady of Orr's Island 
 went through with this customary little lie of civilized so* 
 ciety with as much gravity as if they were practising in the 
 court of Versailles, she looking out from the corner of 
 her eye to watch the effect of her words, and he laying his 
 hand on his heart in the most edifying gravity. They per- 
 fectly understood one another. 
 
 But, says the reader, seems to me Sally Kittridge does 
 all the talking ! So she does, so she always will, for it 
 is her nature to be bright, noisy, and restless ; and one of 
 these girls always overcrows a timid and thoughtful one, 
 and makes her, for the time, seem dim and faded, as does 
 rose color when put beside scarlet. 
 
 Sally was a born coquette. It was as natural for her to 
 want to flirt with every man she saw, as for a kitten to 
 scamper after a pin-ball. Does the kitten care a fig for the 
 pin-ball, or the dry leaves, which she whisks, and frisks, and 
 boxes, and pats, and races round and round after? No; it's 
 nothing but kittenhood ; every hair of her fur is alive with 
 it. Her sleepy green eyes, when she pretends to be dozing, 
 are full of it ; and though she looks wise a moment, and 
 $ecms resolved to be a discreet young cat, let but a leaf 
 sway off" she goes again, with a frisk and a rap. So, 
 though Sally had scolded and flounced about Moses* inat- 
 tention to Mara in advance, she contrived even in this first 
 interview to keep him talking with nobody but herself; 
 not because she wanted to draw him from Mara, or meant 
 to ; not because she cared a pin for him ; but because 
 was her nature as a frisky young cat. 
 And Moses let himself be drawn, between bantering and 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 241 
 
 contradicting, and jest and earnest, at some moments almost 
 to forget that Mara was in the room. 
 
 She took her sewing and sat with a pleased smile, some- 
 times breaking into the lively flow of conversation, or 
 eagerly appealed to by both parties to settle some rising 
 quarrel. 
 
 On.ie, as they were talking, Moses looked up and saw 
 Hara's head, as a stray sunbeam falling upon the golden hair 
 seemed to make a halo around her face. 
 
 Her large eyes were fixed upon him with an expression 
 BO intense and penetrative, that he felt a sort of wincing un- 
 easiness. 
 
 " What makes you look at me so, Mara ? " he said, sud- 
 denly. 
 
 A bright flush came in her cheek as she answered, "I 
 did n't know I was looking. It all seems so strange to me. 
 I km trying to make out who and what you are." 
 
 "It's not best to look too deep," Moses said, laughing, 
 but with a slight shade of uneasiness. 
 
 When Sally, late in the afternoon, declared that she must 
 go home, she could n't stay another minute, Moses rose to go 
 with her. 
 
 " What are you getting up for ? " she said to Moses, as he 
 took his hat. 
 
 " To go home with you, to be sure." 
 
 " Nobody asked you to," said Sally. 
 
 " I 'm accustomed to asking myself," said Moses. 
 
 " Well, I suppose I must have you . along," said Sally. 
 v Father will be glad to see you, of course." 
 
 " You '11 be back to tea, Moses," said Mara, " will 
 you not? Grandfather will be home, and want to see 
 
 11 
 
242 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Oh, I shall be right back," said Moses, " I have a little 
 business to settle with Captain Kittridge." 
 
 But Moses, however, did stay at tea with Mrs. Kittridge, 
 who looked graciously at him through the bows of her black 
 horn spectacles, having heard her liege lord observe that 
 Moses was a smart chap, and had done pretty well ill a 
 money way. 
 
 How came he to stay ? Sally told him every other min- 
 ute to go ; and then when he had got fairly out of the door, 
 called him back to tell him that there was something she had 
 heard about him. 
 
 And Moses of course came back ; wanted to know what il 
 was; and couldn't be told, it was a secret; and then he 
 would be ordered off, and reminded that he promised to go 
 straight home ; and then when he got a little farther off she 
 called after him a second time, to tell him that he would be 
 very much surprised if he knew how she found it out, etc., 
 etc., till at last tea being ready, there was no reason why 
 he should n't have a cup. And so it was sober moonrise 
 before Moses found himself going home. 
 
 " Hang that girl ! " he said to himself; " don't she know 
 what she's about, though?" 
 
 There our hero was mistaken. Sally never did know 
 what she was about, had no plan or purpose more than a 
 blackbird ; and when Moses was gone laughed to think how 
 many times she had made him come back. 
 
 " Now, confound it all," said Moses, " I care more for our 
 Httlo Mara than a dozen of her ; and what have I been fool- 
 ing all this time for? now Mara will think I don't love 
 her." 
 
 And, in fact, our young gentleman rather set his heart OD 
 the sensation he was going to make when he got home. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 248 
 
 It is flattering, after all, to feel one's power over a suscep- 
 tible nature; and Moses, remembering how entirely and 
 devotedly Mara had loved him all through childhood, never 
 doubted but he was the sole possessor of uncounted treasure 
 in her heart, which he could develop at his leisure and use 
 as he pleased. 
 
 He did not calculate for one force which had grown up in 
 the mean while between them, and that was the power of 
 womanhood. He did not know the intensity of that kind 
 of pride, which is the very life of the female nature, and 
 which is most vivid and vigorous in the most timid and 
 retiring. 
 
 Our little Mara was tender, self-devoting, humble, and 
 religious, but she was woman after all to the tips of her 
 fingers, quick to feel slights, and determined, with the 
 intensest determination, that no man should wrest from her 
 one of those few humble rights and privileges, which Nature 
 allows to woman. 
 
 Something swelled and trembled in her when she felt the 
 confident pressure of that bold arm around her waist, like 
 the instinct of a wild bird to fly. Something in the deep, 
 manly voice, the determined, self-confident air, aroused a 
 vague feeling of defiance and resistance in her which she 
 could scarcely explain to herself. Was he to assume a right 
 to her in this way without even asking ? When he did not 
 some to tea nor long after, and Mrs. Pennel and her grand- 
 lather wondered, she laughed, and said gayly, 
 
 " Oh, he knows he '11 have time enough to see me. Sally 
 seems more like a stranger." 
 
 But when Moses came home after moonrise, determined 
 to 150 and console Mara for his absence, he was surprised to 
 bear the sound of a rapid and pleasant conversation, in 
 
244 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 which a masculine and feminine voice were intermingled in 
 a lively duet. 
 
 Coming a little nearer, he saw Mara sitting knitting in 
 the door-way, and a very good-looking young man seated on 
 a stone at her feet, with his straw hat flung on the ground, 
 while he was looking up into her face, as young men often 
 do into pretty faces seen by moonlight. Mara rose and in- 
 troduced Mr. Adams of Boston to Mr. Moses Fennel. 
 
 Moses measured the young man with his eye as if he 
 could have shot him with a good will. And his temper wag 
 not at all bettered as he observed that he had the easy air of 
 a man of fashion and culture, and learned by a few moments 
 of the succeeding conversation, that the acquaintance had 
 commenced during Mara's winter visit to Boston. 
 
 " I was staying a day or two at Mr. Sewell's," he said, 
 carelessly, " and the night was so fine I could n't resist the 
 temptation to row over." 
 
 It was now Moses' turn to listen to a conversation in 
 which he could bear little part, it being about persons and 
 places and things unfamiliar to him ; and though he could 
 give no earthly reason why the conversation was not the 
 most proper in the world, yet he found that it made him 
 angry. 
 
 In the pauses, Mara inquired, prettily, how he found the 
 Xittridges, and reproved him playfully for staying, in de- 
 epite of his promise to come home. 
 
 Moses answered with an effort to appear easy and playful, 
 that there was no reason, it appeared, to hurry on her ac- 
 count, since she had been so pleasantly engaged. 
 
 " That is true," said Mara, quietly ; " but then grandpapa 
 and grandmamma expected you, and they have gone to bed 
 ts you know they always do after tea." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 245 
 
 "They '11 keep till morning, I suppose," said Moses, rathe? 
 gruffly. 
 
 " Oh yes ; but then as you had been gone two or three 
 months, naturally they wanted to see a little of you at 
 first." 
 
 The stranger now joined in the conversation, and began 
 talking with Moses about his experiences in foreign parts, 
 in a manner which showed a man of sense and breeding. 
 Moses had a jealous fear of people of breeding, an appre* 
 hension lest they should look down on one whose life had 
 been laid out of the course of their conventional ideas ; and 
 therefore, though he had sufficient ability and vigor of mind 
 to acquit himself to advantage in this conversation, it gave 
 him all the while a secret uneasiness. 
 
 After a few moments, he rose up moodily, and saying that 
 he was very much fatigued, he went into the house to retire. 
 
 Mr. Adams rose to go also, and Moses might have felt in 
 a more Christian frame of mind, had he listened to the last 
 words of the conversation between him and Mara. 
 
 " Do you remain long in Harpswell ? " she asked. 
 
 " That depends on circumstances," he replied. " If I do, 
 paay I be permitted to visit you ? " 
 
 " As a friend yes," said Mara ; " I shall always bft 
 happy to see you." 
 
 No more ? " 
 
 " No more," replied Mara. 
 
 " I had hoped," he said, u that you would reconsider." 
 
 "It is impossible," said she; and soft voices can pro- 
 nounce that word, impossible, in a very fateful and decisive 
 manner. 
 
 " Well, God bless you, then, Miss Lincoln," he eai ^ and 
 was gone, 
 
846 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Mara stood in the door-way and saw him loosen his boat 
 from its moorings and float off in the moonlight, with a long 
 train of silver sparkles behind. 
 
 A moment after Moses was looking gloomily over her 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Who is that puppy ?" he said. 
 
 " He is not a puppy, but a very fine young man," said 
 Mara. 
 
 " Well, that very fine young man, then ? " 
 
 " I thought I told you. He is a Mr. Adams of Boston, 
 and a distant connection of the Sewells'. I met him when 
 I was visiting at Judge Sewell's in Boston." 
 
 "You seemed to be having a very pleasant time to- 
 gether?" 
 
 " We were," said Mara, quietly. 
 
 " It 's a pity I came home as I did. I 'm sorry I inter- 
 rupted you," said Moses, with a sarcastic laugh. 
 
 " You did n't interrupt us ; he had been here almost two 
 hours." 
 
 Now Mara saw plainly enough that Moses was displeased 
 and hurt, and had it been in the days of her fourteenth sum- 
 mer, she would have thrown her arms around his neck, and 
 flaid, "Moses, I don't care a fig for that man, and I love 
 you better than all the world." But this the young lady of 
 seventeen would not do ; so she wished him good-night very 
 prettily, and pretended not to see anything about it. 
 
 Mara was as near being a saint as human dust ever is ; 
 but she was a woman saint ; and therefore may be ex- 
 cused for a little gentle vindictiveness. She was, in a merci- 
 ful way, rather glad that Moses had gone to bed dissatisfied, 
 Rnd rather glad that he did not know what she might have 
 V>id him quite resolved that he should not know at pres 
 
THE PFARf, OF ORR'S ISLAND. 247 
 
 ent. Was he to know that she liked nobody so much as 
 him ? Not he, unless he loved her more than all the world, 
 and said so first. 
 
 Mara was resolved upon that. He might go where he 
 liked flirt with whom he liked come back as late as he 
 pleased never would she, by word or lock, give him re&son 
 to think she cared. 
 
218 THE PEAKL OF ORK'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 MOSES passed rather a restless and uneasy night on hii 
 return to the home-roof which had sheltered his childhood. 
 
 All his life past, and all his life expected, seemed to boil 
 and seethe and ferment in his thoughts, and to go round and 
 round in never-ceasing circles before him. 
 
 Moses was par excellence proud, ambitious, and wilful 
 These words, generally supposed to describe positive vicej 
 of the mind, in fact are only the overaction of certain very 
 valuable portions of our nature, since one can conceive all 
 three to raise a man immensely in the scale of moral being, 
 simply by being applied to right objects. 
 
 He who is too proud even to admit a mean thought 
 who is ambitious only of ideal excellence who has an in- 
 flexible will only in the pursuit of truth and righteousness 
 may be a saint and a hero. 
 
 But Moses was neither a saint nor a hero, but an unde- 
 veloped chaotic young man, whose pride made him sensitive 
 and restless ; whose ambition was fixed on wealth and worldly 
 success ; whose wilfulness was for the most part a blind de- 
 termination to compass his own points with the leave of 
 Providence or without. 
 
 There was nc God in his estimate of life and a sort of 
 secret unsuspected determination at the bottom of his heart 
 that there should be none. 
 
 He feared religion, from a suspicion which he entertained 
 that it might hamper some of his future schemes. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 249 
 
 He did not wish to put himself under its rules, lest he 
 might find them ia some future time inconveniently strict 
 
 With such determinations and feelings, the Bible neces- 
 sarily an excessively uninteresting book to him he never 
 read, and satisfied himself with determining in a general way 
 that it was not worth reading, and as was the custom with 
 many young men in America, at that period announced him- 
 self as a sceptic, and seemed to value himself not a little on 
 the distinction. 
 
 Pride in scepticism is a peculiar distinction of young men. 
 It takes years and maturity to make the discovery that the 
 power of faith is nobler than the power of doubt ; and that 
 there is a celestial wisdom in the ingenuous propensity tc 
 trust, which belongs to honest and noble natures. Elderly 
 sceptics generally regard their unbelief as a misfortune. 
 
 Not that Moses was, after all, without "the angel in him.' 
 He had a good deal of the susceptibility to poetic feeling, the 
 power of vague and dreamy aspiration, the longing after the 
 good and beautiful, which is God's witness in the soul. A 
 noble sentiment in poetry, a fine scene in nature, had power 
 to bring tears in his great dark eyes, and he had, under the 
 influence of such things, brief inspired moments in which he 
 vaguely longed to do, or be, something grand or noble. 
 
 But this, however, was something apart from the real pur- 
 pose of his life, a sort of voice crying in the wilderness, 
 to which he gave little heed. 
 
 Practically, he was determined with all his might, to have 
 n good time in this life, whatever another might be, if 
 there were one ; and that he would do it by the strength of 
 his right arm. Wealth he saw to be the lamp of Aladdin, 
 which commanded all other things. And the pursuit of 
 wealth was therefore the first step in his programme. 
 11* 
 
250 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 As f</f plans of the heart and domestic life, Moses wai 
 one of that very common class who had more desire to be 
 loved than power of loving. His cravings and dreams were 
 not for somebody to be devoted to, but for somebody who 
 should le devoted to him. And, like most people who 
 possess this characteristic, he mistook it for an affectionate 
 disposition. 
 
 Now the chief treasure of his heart had always been hia 
 little sister Mara, chiefly from his conviction that he was the 
 one absorbing thought and love of her heart. 
 
 He had never figured life to himself otherwise than with 
 Mara at his side, his unquestioning, devoted friend. 
 
 Of course he and his plans, his ways and wants, would 
 always be in the future, as they always had been, her sole 
 thought. 
 
 These sleeping partnerships in the interchange of affec- 
 tion, which support one's heart with a basis of uncounted 
 wealth, and leave one free to come and go, and buy and sell 
 without exaction or interference, are a convenience certainly, 
 and the loss of them in any way is like the sudden breaking 
 of a bank in which all one's deposits are laid. 
 
 It had never occurred to Moses how or in what capacity 
 he should always stand banker to the whole wealth of love 
 that there was in Mara's heart, and what provision he should 
 make on his part for returning this incalculable debt. 
 
 But the interview of this evening had raised a new 
 thought in his mind. Mara, as he saw that day, was no 
 longer a little girl in a pink sun-bonnet. She was a woman, 
 a little one, it is true, but every inch a woman, and a 
 woman invested with a singular poetic charm of appearance, 
 which, more than beauty, has the power of awakening feel 
 'jag in the other sex. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 251 
 
 He felt in himself in the experience of that one day 
 that there was something subtle and veiled about her, which 
 uet the imagination at work ; that the wistful, plaintive ex- 
 pression of her dark eyes, and a thousand little shy and 
 tremulous movements of her face, affected him more than 
 the most brilliant of Sally Kittridge's sprightly sallies. Yes, 
 there would be people falling in love with her fast enough, 
 he thought even here, where she is as secluded as a pearl in 
 an oyster-shell. It seems means were found to come after 
 her, and then all the love of her heart that priceless love 
 would go to another. 
 
 Mara would be absorbed in some one else, would love 
 some one else, as he knew she could, with heart and soul 
 and mind and strength. When he thought of this, it affect- 
 ed him much as it would if one were turned out of a warm, 
 smiling apartment into a bleak December storm. What 
 should he do, if that treasure which he had taken most for 
 granted in all his valuations of life should suddenly be found 
 to belong to another ? Who was this fellow that seemed so 
 free to visit her, and what had passed between them ? Was 
 Mara in love with him, or going to be ? There is no saying 
 how the consideration of this question enhanced in our hero's 
 opinion both her beauty and all her other good qualities. 
 
 Such a brave little heart ! such a good, clear little head 1 
 and such a pretty hand and foot ! She was always so cheer- 
 ful, so unselfish, so devoted ! When had he ever seen her 
 angry, except when she had taken up some childish quarrel 
 of his, and fought for him like a little Spartan ? Then she 
 was pious, too. She was born religious, thought our hero, 
 who, in common with many men professing scepticism for 
 .heir own particular part, set a great value on religion in 
 that unknown future person whom they are fond of desig- 
 
252 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Dating in advance as "my wife." Yes, Moses meant hii 
 wife should be pious, and pray for him, while he did as he 
 pleased. 
 
 " Now there 's that witch of a Sally Kittridge," he said to 
 himself; <( I would n't have such a girl for a wife. Nothing 
 to her but foam and frisk, no heart more than a bobo- 
 link ! But is n't she amusing ? By George ! is n't she, 
 though ? " 
 
 "But," thought Moses, "it's time I settled this matter 
 who is to be my wife. I won't marry till I 'm rich, that 't 
 flat. My wife is n't to rub and grub. So at it I must go to 
 raise the wind. I wonder if old Sewell really does know 
 anything about my parents. Miss Emily would have it that 
 there was some mystery that he had the key of; but I never 
 could get anything from him. He always put me off in 
 such a smooth way that I could n't tell whether he did or 
 he did n't. But, now, supposing I have relatives, family 
 connections, then who knows but what there may be prop- 
 erty coming to me ? That 's an idea worth looking after, 
 surely." 
 
 There 's no saying with what vividness ideas and images 
 go through one's wakeful brain when the midnight moon is 
 making an exact shadow of your window-sash, with panes 
 of light, on your chamber-floor. How vividly we all have 
 loved and hated and planned and hoped and feared and 
 desired and dreamed, as we tossed and turned to and fro 
 upon such watchful, still nights. 
 
 In the stillness, the tide upon one side of the Island re- 
 plied to the dash on the other side in unbroken symphony, 
 and Moses began to remember all the stories gossips had 
 told him of how he had been floated ashore there, like a 
 fragment of tropical sea-weed borne landward by a greai 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR S ISLAND. 253 
 
 gale. He positively wondered at himself that he had never 
 thought of it more, and the more he meditated, the more 
 mysterious and inexplicable he felt. Then he had heard 
 Miss Roxy once speaking something about a bracelet, he 
 was sure he had ; but afterwards it was hushed up, and no 
 one seemed to know anything about it when he inquired. 
 
 But in those days he was a boy, he was nobody, new 
 he was a young man. He could go to Mr. Sewell, and de- 
 mand as his right a fair answer to any questions he might 
 ask. If he found, as was quitf likely, that there was noth- 
 ing to be known, his mind would be thus far settled, he 
 should trust only to his own resources. 
 
 So far as the state of the young man's finances were con- 
 cerned, it would be considered in those simple times and 
 regions an auspicious beginning of life. The sum intrusted 
 to him by Captain Kittridge had been more than doubled by 
 the liberality of Zephaniah Fennel, and Moses had traded 
 upon it in foreign parts with a skill and energy that brought 
 a very fair return, and gave him, in the eyes of the shrewd, 
 thrifty neighbors, the prestige of a young man who was 
 marked for success in the world. 
 
 He had already formed an advantageous arrangement 
 with his grandfather and Captain Kittridge, by which a 
 ship was to be built, which he should command and thus 
 the old Saturday afternoon dream of their childhood be ful- 
 611ed. 
 
 As he thought of it, there arose in his mind a picture of 
 Mara, with her golden hair and plaintive eyes and little 
 white hands, reigning as a fairy queen in the captain's cabin, 
 with a sort of wish to carry her off and make sure that no 
 one else ever should get her from him. 
 
 "Rut these midnight dreams were all sobered down by tha 
 
254 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 plain matter-of-fact beams of the morning sun, and nothing 
 remained of immediate definite purpose except the resolve 
 which came strongly upon Moses as he looked across the 
 blue band of Harpsw ^11 Bay, that he would go tb<V morning 
 and have a talk with Mr. SewelL 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND, 255 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Miss ROXY TOOTIIACRE was seated by the window of Ihe 
 little keeping-room where Miss Emily Sewell sat on every- 
 day occasions. Around her were the insignia of her power 
 and sway. Her big tailor's goose was heating between Miss 
 Emily's bright brass fire-irons ; her great pin-cushion was by 
 her side, bristling with pins of all sizes, and with broken 
 needles thriftily made into pins by heads of red sealing-wax, 
 and with needles threaded with all varieties of cotton, silk, 
 and linen ; her scissors hung martially by her side ; her 
 black bombazette work-apron was on ; and the expression 
 of her iron features was that of deep responsibility, for she 
 was making the minister a new Sunday vest ! 
 
 The good soul looks not a day older than when we left 
 her, ten years ago. Like the gray, weather-beaten rocks of 
 her native shore, her strong features had an unchangeable 
 identity beyond that of anything fair and blooming. There 
 was of course no chance for a gray streak in her stiff, un- 
 compromising mohair frisette, which still pushed up her cap- 
 border bristlingly as of old, and the clear, high winds and 
 bracing atmosphere of thaj rough coast kept her in an ad- 
 mirable state of preservation. 
 
 Miss Emily had now and then a white hair among her 
 soft, pretty brown ones, and looked a little thinner ; but the 
 *ound, bright spot of bloom on each cheek was there just as 
 of yore, and just as of yore she was thinking of her 
 
256 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 brother, and filling her little head with endless calculation? 
 to keep him looking fresh and respectable, and his house- 
 keeping comfortable and easy, on very limited means. She 
 was now officiously and anxiously attending on Miss Roxy, 
 who was in the midst of the responsible operation which 
 should conduce greatly to this end. 
 
 " Does that twist work well ? " she said, nervously ; " be- 
 cause I believe I Ve got some other up-stairs in my India 
 box." 
 
 Miss Roxy surveyed the article ; bit a fragment off, as if 
 she meant to taste it; threaded a needle and made a few 
 cabalistical stitches ; and then pronounced, ex cathedra, that 
 it would do. Miss Emily gave a sigh of relief. After but- 
 tons and tapes and linings, and various other items had 
 been also discussed, the conversation began to flow into 
 general channels. 
 
 " Did you know Moses Fennel had got home from Uui- 
 bagog?" said Miss Roxy. 
 
 " Yes. Captain Kittridge told brother so this morning. I 
 wonder he does n't call over to see us." 
 
 " Your brother took a sight of interest in that boy," said 
 Miss Roxy. " I was saying to Ruey, this morning, that if 
 Moses Fennel ever did turn out well, he ought to have a 
 large share of the credit." 
 
 " Brother always did feel a peculiar interest in him ; it 
 was such a strange providence that seemed to cast in his lot 
 among us," said Miss Emily. 
 
 " As sure as you live, there he is a-coming to the front- 
 door," said Miss Roxy. 
 
 " Dear me," said Miss Emily, " and here I have on thu 
 old faded chintz. Just so sure as one puts on any old rag 
 and thinks nobody will come, company is sure to call." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 257 
 
 " Law, I 'm sure I should n't think of calling him com- 
 pany," said Miss Roxy. 
 
 A rap at the door put an end to this conversation, and 
 very soon Miss Emily introduced our hero into the little 
 sil ting-room, in the midst of a perfect stream of apologies 
 relating to her old dress and the littered condition of the 
 sitting-room, for Miss Emily held to the doctrine of those 
 who consider any sign of human occupation and existence 
 in a room as being disorder however reputable and re- 
 spectable be the cause of it. 
 
 " Well, really," she said, after she had seated Moses :y 
 the fire, " how time does pass, to be sure ; it don't seem 
 more than yesterday since you used to come with your 
 Latin books, and now here you are a grown man ! I 
 must run and tell Mr. Sewell. He will be so glad to see 
 you." 
 
 Mr. Sewell soon appeared from his study in morning- 
 gown and slippers, and seemed heartily responsive to the 
 proposition which Moses soon made to him to have some 
 private conversation with him in his study. 
 
 " I declare," said Miss Emily, as soon as the study-door 
 had closed upon her brother and Moses, " what a handsome 
 young man he is ! and what a beautiful way he has with 
 him! so deferential! A great many young men nowa- 
 days seem to think nothing of their minister ; but he comes 
 to seek advice. Very proper. It is n't every young man 
 that appreciates the privilege of having elderly friends. 1 
 declare, what a beautiful couple he and Mara Lincoln would 
 make ! Don't Providence seem in a peculiar way to have 
 designed them for each other?" 
 
 "I hope not," said Miss Roxy, with her grimmest expres- 
 tkm. 
 
258 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " You don't ! Why not ? " 
 
 " I never liked him," said Miss Roxy, who had possessed 
 herself of her great heavy goose, and was now thumping and 
 squeaking it emphatically on the press-board. " She 's a 
 thousand times too good for Moses Fennel," thump. " 1 
 never had no faith in him," thump. " He 's dreffle an- 
 stiddy," thump. "He's handsome, but he knows it,"- 
 thump. " He won't never love nobody so much as he does 
 bimself," thump, fortissimo con spirito. 
 
 " Well, really now, Miss Roxy, you must n't always re- 
 member the sins of his youth. Boys must sow their wild 
 oats. He was unsteady for a while, but now everybody 
 says he 's doing well ; and as to his knowing he 's hand- 
 some, and all that, I don't see as he does. See how polite 
 and deferential he was to us all, this morning ; and he spoke 
 so handsomely to you." 
 
 " I don't want none of his politeness," said Miss Roxy, 
 inexorably ; " and as to Mara Lincoln, she might have bet- 
 ter than him any day. Miss Badger was a-tellin' Captain 
 Brown Sunday noon that she was very much admired in 
 Boston." 
 
 " So she was," said Miss Emily, bridling. " I never re- 
 veal secrets, or I might tell something, but there has 
 been a young man, but I promised not to speak of it, and 
 I sha r n't." 
 
 "If you mean Mr. Adams," said Miss Roxy, " you need n't 
 worry about keepin' that secret, 'cause that ar was all talked 
 over atween meetin's a Sunday noon ; for Mis' Kittridge she 
 used to know his aunt Jerushy, her that married Solomon 
 Peters, and Mis' Uaptain Badger she says that he has a verj 
 good prope' t^ Arw 1 Vs a professor in the Old South church ir 
 Boston." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 259 
 
 "Dear me," said Miss Emily, "how things do get about." 
 
 u People will talk, there a'n't no use trying to help it," 
 mid Miss Roxy ; " but it 's strongly borne in on my mind 
 that it a'n't Adams, nor r t a'n't Moses Fennel that 's to marry 
 her. I 've had peculiar exercises of mind about that ar child, 
 well I have ; " and Miss Roxy pulled a large spotted ban- 
 danna handkerchief out of her pocket, and blew her nose like) 
 a trumpet, and then wiped the withered corners of her eyea, 
 which were humid as some old Orr's Island rock wet with 
 sea-spray. 
 
 Miss Emily had a secret love of romancing. It was one 
 of the recreations of her quiet, monotonous life to build air- 
 castles, which she furnished regardless of expense, and in 
 which she set up at house-keeping her various friends and 
 acquaintances, and she had always been bent on weaving 
 a romance on the history of Mara and Moses Fennel. 
 
 The good little body had done her best to second Mr. 
 Sewell's attempts toward the education of the children. It 
 was little busy Miss Emily who persuaded honest Zephaniah 
 and Mary Fennel that talents such as Mara's ought to be 
 cultivated, and that ended in sending her to Miss Plucher's 
 school in Portland. There her artistic faculties were trained 
 into creating funereal monuments out of chenille embroidery, 
 fully equal to Miss Emily's own ; also to painting landscapes, 
 in which the ground and all the trees were one unvarying 
 tint of blue-green ; and also to creating flowers of a new 
 and particular construction, which, as Sally Kittridge re- 
 marked, were pretty, but did not look like anything in 
 heaven or earth. Mara had obediently and patiently done 
 all these things ; and solaced herself with copying flowera 
 and birds and landscapes as near as possible like nature, ag 
 recreation from these mere dignified toils. 
 
260 THE PEARL OF ORK'S ISLAND. 
 
 Miss Emily also had been the means of getting Mara m 
 vited to Boston, where she saw some really polished society, 
 and gained as much knowledge of the forms of artificial life 
 as a nature so wholly and strongly individual could obtain 
 So little Miss Emily regarded Mara as her godchild, and 
 was intent on finishing her up into a romance in real life, 
 of which a handsome young man, who had been washed 
 ashore in a shipwreck, should be the hero. 
 
 What would she have said could she have heard the 
 conversation that was passing in her brother's study ? 
 Little could she dream that the mystery, about which she 
 had timidly nibbled for years, was now about to be unrolled ; 
 but it was even so. 
 
 But, upon what she does not see, good reader, you and 
 J, following invisibly on tiptoe, will make our observations. 
 
 When Moses was first ushered into Mr. Sewell's study, 
 and found himself quite alone, with the door shut, his heart 
 beat so that he fancied the good man must hear it. He 
 knew well what he wanted and meant to say, but he found 
 in himself all that shrinking and nervous repugnance 
 which always attends the proposing of any decisive ques- 
 tion. 
 
 " I thought it proper," he began, " that I should call and 
 express my sense of obligation to you, sir, for all the kind- 
 ness you showed me when a boy. I 'm afraid in those 
 thoughtless days I did not seem to appreciate it so much aa 
 I do now." 
 
 As Moses said this, the color rose in his cheeks, and hij 
 fine eyes grew moist with a sort of subdued feeling that 
 made his face for the moment more than usually beau 
 tiful. 
 
 Mr. Scwell looked at him with an expression of peculial 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 261 
 
 Interest, which seemed to have something almost of pain in 
 it, and answered with a degree of feeling more than he com- 
 monly showed, 
 
 " It has been a pleasure to me to do anything I could for 
 you, my young friend. I only wish it could have been more. 
 I congratulate you on your present prospects in life. You 
 have perfect health ; you have energy and enterprise ; you 
 are courageous and self-reliant, and, I trust, your habits are 
 pure and virtuous. It only remains that you add to all 
 this that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wis- 
 dom." 
 
 Moses bowed his head respectfully, and then sat silent a 
 moment, as if he were looking through some cloud where he 
 vainly tried to discover objects. 
 
 Mr. Sewell continued, gravely, 
 
 " You have the greatest reason to bless the kind Provi- 
 dence which has cast your lot in such a family, in such a 
 community. I have had some means in my youth of com- 
 paring other parts of the country with our New England, 
 and it is my opinion that a young man could not ask a bet- 
 ter introduction into life than the wholesome nurture of a 
 Christian family in our favored land." 
 
 " Mr. Sewell," said Moses, raising his head, and suddenly 
 looking him straight in the eyes, u do you know anything of 
 my family ? " 
 
 The question was so point-blank and sudden, that for a 
 moment Mr. Sewell made a sort of motion as if he dodged a 
 pistol-shot, and then his face assumed an expression of grave 
 Ihoughtfulness, while Moses drew a long breath. It was 
 out, the question had been asked. 
 
 " My son," replied Mr. Seweil, " it has alway? been my 
 intention, "when you had arrived at years of discretion, to 
 
262 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 make you acquainted with all that I know or suspict in 
 regard to your life. I trust that when I tell you all I do 
 know, you will see that I have acted for the best in the 
 matter. It has been my study and my prayer to do so.'* 5 
 
 Mr. Sewell then rose, and unlocking the cabinet, of which 
 we have before made mention, in his apartment, drew forth 
 a very yellow and time-worn package of papers, which ho 
 untied. From these he selected one which enveloped an 
 old-fashioned miniature case. 
 
 " I am going to show you," he said, " what only you and 
 my God know that I possess. I have not looked at it now 
 for ten years, but I have no doubt that it is the likeness of 
 your mother." 
 
 Moses took it in his hand, and for a few moments there 
 came a mist over his eyes, he could not see clearly. He 
 walked to the window as if needing a clearer light. 
 
 What he saw was a painting of a beautiful young girl, 
 with large melancholy eyes, and a clustering abundance of 
 black, curly hair. The face was of a beautiful, clear oval, 
 with that warm brunette tint in which the Italian painters 
 delight. The black eyebrows were strongly and clearly 
 defined, and there was in the face an indescribable expres- 
 sion of childish innocence and shyness, mingled with a kind 
 cf confiding frankness, that gave the picture the charm 
 which sometimes fixes itself in faces for which we involun- 
 tarily make a history. 
 
 She was represented as simply attired in a white muslin, 
 made low in the neck, and the hands and arms were singu- 
 larly beautiful. The picture, as Moses looked at it, seemed 
 to stand smiling at him with a childish grace, a tender 
 ignorant innocence which affected him deeply. 
 
 " My young friend," said Mr Sewell, " I have written a] 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 263 
 
 that I know of the original of this picture, and vhe reasons 
 I have ior thinking her your mother. 
 
 "You will find it all in this paper, which, if I had been 
 providentially removed, was to have been given you in your 
 twenty-first year. You will see in the delicate nature of the 
 narrative that it could not properly have been imparted to 
 you till you had arrived at years of understanding. 1 (nut 
 when you know all that you will be satisfied with the course 
 I have pursued. You will read it at your leisure, and after 
 reading I shall be happy to see you again." 
 
 Moses took the package, and after exchanging salutations 
 with Mr. Sewell, hastily left the house and sought his boat. 
 
 When one has suddenly come into possession of a letter 
 or paper in which is known to be hidden the solution of 
 some long-pondered secret, or the decision of fate with 
 regard to some long-cherished desire, who has not been 
 conscious of a sort of pain, an unwillingness, at once to 
 know what is therein ? 
 
 We turn the letter again and again, we lay it by and 
 i sturn to it, and defer from moment to moment the opening 
 of it. So Moses did not sit down in the first retired spot to 
 ponder the paper. He put it in the breast pocket of his 
 coat, and then, taking up his oars, rowed across the bay. 
 He did not land at the house, but passed around the south 
 point of the Island, and rowed up the other side to seek a 
 solitary retreat in the rocks, which had always been a 
 favorite with him in his early days. 
 
 The shores of the Island, as we have said, are a precipi- 
 tous wall of rock, whose long, ribbed ledges extend far out 
 into the sea. At high tide these ledges are covered with the 
 smooth blue sea quite up to the precipitous shore. There 
 was a pla-je, however, where the ro^ky shore shelved over 
 
261 THE PEAJIL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 forming between two ledges a sort of grotto, whose smooth 
 floor of shells and many-colored pebbles was never wet by 
 the rising tide. It had been the delight of Moses when a 
 boy, to come here and watch the gradual rise of the tide till 
 the grotto was entirely cut off from all approach, and then to 
 look out in a sort of hermit-like security over the open ocean 
 that stretched before him. Many an hour he had sat there 
 and dreamed of all the possible fortunes that might be found 
 for him wb.jn he should launch away into that blue smiling 
 futurity. 
 
 It was now about half-tide, and Moses left his boat and 
 made his way over the ledge of rocks toward his retreat. 
 They were all shaggy and slippery with yellow sea- weeds, 
 with here and there among them wide crystal pools, where 
 purple and lilac and green mosses unfolded their delicate 
 threads, and thousands of curious little shell-fish were tran- 
 quilly pursuing their quiet life. The rocks where the pel- 
 lucid water lay were in some places crusted with barnacles, 
 which were opening and shutting the little white scaly doors 
 of their tiny houses, and drawing in and out those delicate 
 pink plumes which seem to be their nerves of enjoyment. 
 Moses and Mara had rambled and played here many hours 
 of their childhood, amusing themselves with catching crabs 
 and young lobsters and various little fish for these rocky 
 aquariums, and then studying at their leisure their various 
 ways. Now he had come hither a man, to learn the secret 
 of his life. 
 
 Moses stretched himself down on the clean pebbly shore 
 &f the grotto, and drew forth Mr. Sewell's letter. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 2G5 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Ms. SEWELL'S letter ran as follows : 
 
 MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, It has always been mj 
 intention when you arrived at years of maturity to acquaint 
 you with some circumstances which have given me reason 
 to conjecture your true parentage, and to let you know what 
 steps I have taken to satisfy my own mind in relation to 
 these conjectures. 
 
 In order to do this, it will be necessary for me to go back 
 to the earlier years of my life, and give you the history of 
 some incidents which are known to none of my most intimate 
 friends. I trust I may rely on your honor that they will 
 ever remain as secrets with you. 
 
 I graduated from Harvard University in . At the 
 
 time I was suffering somewhat from an affection of the 
 lungs, which occasioned great alarm to my mother, many of 
 whose family had died of consumption. 
 
 In order to allay her uneasiness, and also for the purpose 
 of raising funds for the pursuit of my professional studies, I 
 accepted a position as tutor in the family of a wealthy gen- 
 tleman at St. Augustine, in Florida. 
 
 I cannot do justice to myself, to the motives which 
 actuated me in the events which took place in this family, 
 without speaking with the most undisguised freedom of the 
 character of all the parties with whom I was connected. 
 
 Don Jose Mendoza was a Spanish gentleman of large 
 13 
 
266 THE PEARL CF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 property, who had emigrated from the Spanish West Indies 
 to Florida, bringing with him an only daughter, who had 
 been left an orphan by the death of her mother at a very 
 early age. 
 
 He brought to this country a large number of slaves ; 
 find shortly after his arrival, married an American lady : a 
 widow with three children. By her he had four other chil- 
 dren. And thus it will appear that the family was made up 
 of such a variety of elements as only the most judicious care 
 could harmonize. 
 
 But the character of the father and mother was such that 
 judicious care was a thing not to be expected of either. 
 
 Don Jose was extremely ignorant and proud, and had lived 
 a life of the grossest dissipation. Habits of absolute author- 
 ity in the midst of a community of a very low moral stand 
 ard, had produced in him all the worst vices of despots. He 
 was cruel, overbearing, and dreadfully passionate. His wife 
 was a woman who had pretensions to beauty, and at times 
 could make herself agreeable, and even fascinating, but 
 she was possessed of a temper quite as violent and ungov- 
 erned as his own. 
 
 Imagine now two classes of slaves, the one belonging to 
 the mistress, and the other brought into the country by the 
 master, and each animated by a party spirit and jealousy ; 
 imagine children of different marriages, inheriting from 
 their parents violent tempers and stubborn wills, flattered 
 and fawned on by slaves, and alternately petted or stormed 
 at, now by this parent and now by that, and you will havp 
 some idea of the task which I undertook in being tutor in 
 this family. 
 
 I was young and fearless in those days, as you are now 
 and the difficulties of the position, instead of exciting appro 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 267 
 
 hension, only awakened the spirit of enterprise and adven- 
 ture. 
 
 The whole arrangements of the household, to me fresh 
 from the simplicity and order of New England, had a singu- 
 lar and wild sort of novelty which was attractive rath:* than 
 otherwise. I was well recommended in the family by an 
 influential and wealthy gentleman of Boston, who repre- 
 sented my family, as indeed it was, as among the oldest and 
 most respectable of Boston, and spoke in such terms of me, 
 personally, as I should not have ventured to use in relation 
 to myself. When I arrived, I found that two or three tutors, 
 who had endeavored to bear well in this tempestuous family, 
 had thrown up the command after a short trial, and that the 
 parents felt some little apprehension of not being able to 
 secure the services of another, a circumstance which I 
 did not fail to improve ir making my preliminary arrange- 
 ments. I assumed an air if grave hauteur, was very ex- 
 acting in all my requisitions and stipulations, and would give 
 no promise of doing more than to give the situation a tem- 
 porary trial. I put on an air of supreme indifference as to 
 my continuance, and acted in fact rather on the assumption 
 that I should confer a favor by remaining. 
 
 In this way I succeeded in obtaining at the outset a posi- 
 tion of more respect and deference than had been enjoyed 
 by any of my predecessors. I had a fine apartment, a ser- 
 vant exclusively devoted to me, a horse for riding, and saw 
 myself treated among the servants as a person of considera- 
 tion and distinction. 
 
 Don Jose and his wife both had in fact a very strong 
 desire to retain my services, when after the trial of a week 
 pr two, it was found that I really could make their discord 
 Wit and turbulent children to some extent obedient and studi 
 
268 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 ous during certain portions of the day ; and in fact I soon 
 acquired in the whole family that ascendency which a well- 
 bred person who respects himself, and can keep his temper, 
 must have over passionate and undisciplined natures. 
 
 I became the receptacle of the complaints of all, and a sort 
 of confidential adviser. Don Jose imparted to me with 
 more frankness than good taste his chagrins with regard to 
 his wife's indolence, ill-temper, and bad management, and 
 his wife in turn omitted no opportunity to vent complaints 
 against her husband for similar reasons. I endeavored, to 
 the best of my ability, to act a friendly part by both. It 
 never was in my nature to see anything that needed to be 
 done without trying to do it, and it was impossible to work 
 at all without becoming so interested in my work as to do 
 far more than I had agreed to do. I assisted Don Jose 
 about many of his affairs; brought his neglected accounts 
 into order ; and suggested from time to time arrangements 
 which relieved the difficulties which had been brought on 
 by disorder and neglect. In fact, I became, as he said, 
 quite a necessary of life to him. 
 
 In regard to the children, I had a more difficult task. 
 The children of Don Jose by his present wife had been 
 systematically stimulated by the negroes into a chronic habit 
 of dislike and jealousy toward her children by a former hus- 
 band. On the slightest pretext, they were constantly running 
 to their father with complaints ; and as the mother warmly 
 espoused the cause of her first children, criminations and re- 
 criminations often convulsed the whole family. 
 
 In ill-regulated families in that region, the care of ths 
 children is from the first in the hands of half-barbarized 
 negroes, whose power of moulding and assimilating childisl 
 minds is peculiar, so that the teacher has to contend con 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 269 
 
 itantly with a savage element in the children which seems 
 to have been drawn in with the mother's milk. 
 
 It is, in a modified way, something the same result as if 
 the child had formed its manners in Dahomey or on the coast 
 of Guinea. 
 
 In the fierce quarrels which were carried on between the 
 children of this family, I had frequent occasion to observe 
 this strange, savage element, which sometimes led to expres- 
 sions and actions which would seem incredible in civilized 
 society. 
 
 The three children by Madame Mendoza's former husband 
 were two girls of sixteen and eighteen and a boy of fourteen. 
 
 The four children of the second marriage consisted of 
 three boys and a daughter, the eldest being not more 
 than thirteen. 
 
 The natural capacity of all the children was good, al- 
 though, from self-will and indolence, they had grown up in 
 a degree of ignorance which could not have been tolerated 
 except in a family living an isolated plantation life in the 
 midst of barbarized dependents. 
 
 Savage and untaught and passionate as they were, the 
 \vork of teaching them was not without its interest to me. 
 A power of control was with me a natural gift ; and then 
 that command of temper which is the common attribute of 
 well-trained persons in the Northern states, was something 
 BO singular in this family as to invest its possessor with a 
 Certain awe ; and my calm, energetic voice, and determined 
 manner, often acted as a charm on their stormy natures. 
 
 But there was one merrJber of the family of whom I have 
 not yet spoken, and yet all this letter is about her, the 
 daughter of Don Jose by his first marriage. Poor Dolores I 
 poor child God grant she may have e-titered into his rest I 
 
270 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 I need not describe her. You have seen her picture. 
 And in the wild, rude, discordant family, she always re 
 minded me of the words, " a lily among thorns." She wa9 
 in her nature unlike all the rest, and, I ma} say, unlike any 
 one I ever saw. She seemed to live a lonely kind of life in 
 this disorderly household, often marked out as the object of 
 the spites and petty tyrannies of both parties. She was re- 
 garded with bitter hatred and jealousy by Madame Mendoza, 
 who was sure to visit her with unsparing bitterness and cru- 
 elty after the occasional demonstrations of fondness she re- 
 ceived from her father. Her exquisite beauty and the gentle 
 softness of her manners, made her such a contrast to her 
 sisters as constantly excited their ill-will. Unlike them all, 
 she was fastidiously neat in her personal habits, and orderly 
 in all the little arrangements of life. 
 
 She seemed to me in this family to be like some shy, 
 beautiful pet creature in the hands of rude, unappreciated 
 owners, hunted from quarter to quarter, and finding rest only 
 by stealth. Yet she seemed to have no perception of the 
 harshness and cruelty with which she was treated. She had 
 grown up with it ; it was the habit of her life to study peace- 
 able methods of averting or avoiding the various inconven- 
 iences and annoyances of her lot, and secure to herself a 
 little quiet. 
 
 It not unfrequently happened, amid the cabals and storms 
 which shook the family, that one party or the other took up 
 and patronized Dolores for a while, more, as it would appear, 
 out of hatred for the other than any real love to her. At 
 such times it was really affecting to see with what warmth 
 the poor child would receive these equivocal demonstra- 
 tions of good-will the nearest approaches to affection 
 fcrhich she had ever known and the bitterness with which 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 271 
 
 ihe -would mourn when they were capriciously withdraw* 
 again. 
 
 With a heart full of affection, she reminded me of some 
 delicate, climbing plant trying vainly to ascend the slippery 
 side of an inhospitable wall, and throwing its neglected ten- 
 drils around eyery weed for support. 
 
 Her only fast, unfailing friend was her old negro nurse, or 
 Mammy, as the children called her. This old creature, with 
 the cunning and subtlety which had grown up from years of 
 servitude, watched and waited upon the interests of her little 
 mistress, and contrived to carry many points for her in the 
 confused household. 
 
 Her young mistress was her one thought and purpose in 
 living. She would have gone through fire and water to 
 serve her ; and this faithful, devoted heart, blind and igno- 
 rant though it were, was the only unfailing refuge and solace 
 of the poor hunted child. 
 
 Dolores, of course, became my pupil among the rest 
 Like the others, she had suffered by the neglect and inter- 
 ruptions in the education of the family, but she was intel- 
 ligent and docile, and learned with a surprising rapidity. It 
 was not astonishing that she should soon have formed an 
 enthusiastic attachment to me, as I was the only intelligent, 
 cultivated person she had ever seen, and treated her with 
 unvarying consideration and delicacy. 
 
 The poor thing had been so accustomed to barbarous 
 words and manners that simple politeness and the usages 
 of good society seemed to her cause for the most bound- 
 less gratitude. 
 
 It is due to myself, in view of what follows, to say that I 
 was from the first aware of the very obvious danger which 
 lay ia my path in finding myself brought into close and daily 
 relations with a young creature so confiding, so attractive, 
 
272 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Rnd so singularly circumstanced. I knew that it would b 
 in the highest degree dishonorable to make the slightest ad- 
 vances toward gaining from her that kind of affection which 
 might interfere with her happiness in such future relations 
 as her father might arrange for her. According to the 
 European fashion, I knew that Dolores was* in her father's 
 hands, to be disposed of for life according to his pleasure, aft 
 absolutely as if she had been one of his slaves. I had every 
 reason to think that his plans on this subject were matured, 
 and only waited for a little more teaching and training on 
 my part, and her fuller development in womanhood, to be 
 announced to her. 
 
 In looking back over the past, therefore, I have not to 
 reproach myself with any dishonest and dishonorable breach 
 of trust ; for I was from the first upon my guard, and so 
 much so that even the jealousy of my other scholars never 
 accused me of partiality. I was not in the habit of giving 
 very warm praise, and was in my general management anx- 
 ious rather to be just than conciliatory, knowing that with 
 the kind of spirits I had to deal with, firmness and justice 
 went farther than anything else. If I approved Dolores 
 oftencr than the rest, it was seen to be because she never 
 failed in a duty ; if I spent more time with her lessons, it 
 was because her enthusiasm for study led her to learn longer 
 ones and study more things; but I am sure there was never 
 a look or a word toward her that went beyond the proprieties 
 of my position. 
 
 But yet I could not so well guard my heart. I was jonng 
 and full of feeling. She was beautiful ; and more than that, 
 there was something in her Spanish nature at once so warm 
 and simple, so artless and yet so unconsciously poetic, that 
 ker presence was a continual charm. 
 
 Hew well I remember her now, all her little wavs, 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 273 
 
 the movements of her pretty little hands, the expression 
 of her changeful faoe as she recited to me, the grave, 
 rapt earnestness with which she listened to all my instruc- 
 tions ! 
 
 I had not been with her many weeks before I felt con- 
 scious that it was her presence that charmed the whole house, 
 and made the otherwise perplexing and distasteful details of 
 my situation agreeable. I had a dim perception that this 
 growing passion was a dangerous thing for myself; but was 
 it a reason, I asked, why I should relinquish a position in 
 which I felt that I was useful, and when I could do for this 
 lovely child what no one else could do ? I call her a child, 
 she always impressed me as such, though she was in 
 her sixteenth year and had the early womanly development 
 of Southern climates. She seemed to me like something 
 frail and precious, needing to be guarded and cared for ; and 
 when reason told me that I risked my own happiness in 
 holding my position, love argued on the other hand that I 
 was her only friend, and that I should be willing to risk 
 something myself for the sake of protecting and shielding 
 her. 
 
 For there was no doubt that my presence in the family 
 was a restraint upon the passions which formerly vented 
 themselves so recklessly on her, and established a sort of 
 order in which she found more peace than she had evei 
 known before. 
 
 For a long time in our intercourse I was in the habit of 
 looking on myself as the only party in danger. It did not 
 iccur to me that this heart, so beautiful and so lonely, might, 
 m the want of all natural and appropriate objects of attach- 
 ment, fasten itself on me unsolicited, from the mere neces- 
 lity of loving. She seemed to me so much too beautiful, toe 
 12* 
 
274 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 perfect, to belong to a lot in life like mine, that t could kji 
 suppose it possible this could occur without the most blame- 
 worthy solicitation on my part ; and it is the saddest and 
 most affecting proof to me how this poor child had been 
 Btarved for sympathy and love, that she should have repaid 
 such cold services as mine with such an entire devotion. At 
 first her feelings were expressed openly toward me, with the 
 dutiful ail of a good child. She placed flowers on my desk 
 in the morning, and made quaint little nosegays in the 
 Spanish fashion, which she gave me, and busied her leisure 
 with various ingenious little knick-knacks of fancy work, 
 which she brought me. I treated them all as the offer- 
 ings of a child while with her, but I kept them sacredly 
 in my own room. To tell the truth, I have some of the 
 poor little things now. 
 
 But after a while I could not help seeing how she loved 
 me ; and then I felt as if I ought to go ; but how could I ? 
 The pain to myself I could have borne ; but how could I 
 leave her to all the misery of her bleak, ungenial position ? 
 She, poor thing, was so unconscious of what I knew, for 
 I was made clear-sighted by love. I tried the more strictly 
 to keep to the path I had marked out for myself, but I fear 
 I did not always do it ; in fact, many things seemed to con- 
 Bpire to throw us together. The sisters, who were some- 
 times invited out to visit on neighboring estates, were glad 
 enough to dispense with the presence and attractions of 
 Dolores, and so she was frequently left at home to study 
 with me in their absence. As to Don Jose, although he 
 always treated me with civility, yet he had such an in 
 grained and deep-rooted idea of his own superiority of 
 position, that I suppose he would as soon have imagined 
 the possibility of his daughter's falling in love w r ith one o/ 
 
THE PEARL OP ORR'S ISLAND. 275 
 
 his horses. I was a great convenience to him. I had a 
 knack of governing ami carrying points in his family that 
 it had always troubled and fatigued him to endeavor to ar- 
 range, and that was all. So that my intercourse with 
 Dolores was as free and unwatched, and gave me as many 
 opportunities of enjoying her undisturbed society, as heart 
 could desire. 
 
 At last came the crisis, however. After breakfast one 
 morning, Don Jose called Dolores into his library and an- 
 nounced to her that he had concluded for her a treaty of 
 marriage, and expected her husband to arrive in a few days. 
 He expected that this news would be received by her with 
 the glee with which a young girl hears of a new dress or 
 of a ball-ticket, and was quite confounded at the grave and 
 mournful silence in which she received it. She said no 
 word, made no opposition, but went out from the room and 
 shut herself up in her own apartment, and spent the day in 
 tears and sobs. 
 
 Don Jose, who had rather a greater regard for Dolores 
 than for any creature living, and who had confidently ex- 
 pected to give great delight by the news he had imparted, 
 was quite confounded by this turn of things. If there had 
 been one word of either expostulation or argument, he 
 would have blazed and stormed in a fury of passion ; but 
 as it was, this broken-hearted submission, though vexatious, 
 wa? perplexing. He sent for me, and opened his mind, 
 and begged me to talk with Dolores and show her the ad- 
 vantages of the alliance, which the poor foolish child, he 
 said, did not seem to comprehend. The man was immensely 
 rich, and had a splendid estate in Cuba. It was a most 
 iesirable thing. 
 
 I ventured to inquire whether his person and manners 
 
276 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 were such as would be pleasing to a young girl, and could 
 gather only that he was a man of about fifty, wno had been 
 most of his life in the military service, and was now desir- 
 ous of making an establishment for the repose of his latter 
 days, at the head of which he would place a handsome and 
 tractable woman, and do well by her. 
 
 I represented that it would perhaps be safer to say no 
 more on the subject until Dolores had seen him, and to this 
 he agreed. Madame Mendoza was very zealous in the 
 affair, for the sake of getting clear of , the presence of Do- 
 lores in the family, and hei sisters laughed at her for her 
 dejected appearance. They only wished, they said, that so 
 much luck might happen to them. For myself, I endeav- 
 ored to take as little notice as possible of the affair, though 
 what I felt may be conjectured. I knew, I was perfectly 
 certain, that Dolores loved me as I loved her. I knew 
 that she had one of those simple and unworldly natures 
 which wealth and splendor could not satisfy, and whose life 
 would lie entirely in her affections. Sometimes I violently 
 debated with myself whether honor required me to sacrifice 
 her happiness as well as my own, and I felt the strongest 
 temptation to ask her to be my wife and fly with me to the 
 Northern States, where I did not doubt my ability to make 
 for her a humble and happy home. 
 
 But the sense of honor is often stronger than all reason- 
 ing, and I felt that such a course would be the betrayal of 
 a trust ; and I determined at least to command myself till I 
 should see the character of the man who was destined to be 
 her husband. 
 
 Meanwhile the whole manner of Dolores was changed. 
 She maintained a stony, gloomy silence, performed all he; 
 iufies in a listless way, and occasionally, when I commented 
 
THE PEARL 05 ORE'S ISLAND. 277 
 
 on anything iii her lessons or exercises, would break into 
 little flashes of petulance, most strange and unnatural in her. 
 Sometimes I could feel that she was looking at me earnestly, 
 but if I turned my eyes toward her, hers were instantly 
 averted ; but there was in her eyes a peculiar expression 
 at times, such as I have seen in the eye of a hunted animal 
 when it turned at bay, a sort of desperate resistance, 
 which, taken in connection with her fragile form and lovely 
 face, produced a mournful impression. 
 
 One morning I found Dolores sitting alone in the school- 
 room, leaning her head on her arms. She had on her wrist 
 a bracelet of peculiar workmanship, which she always wore, 
 
 the bracelet which was afterwards the means of confirm- 
 ing her identity. She sat thus some moments in silence, and 
 then she raised her head and began turning this bracelet 
 round and round upon her arm, while she looked fixedly 
 before her. At last she spoke abruptly, and said, 
 
 " Did I ever tell you that this was my mother's hair ? It 
 is my mother's hair, and she was the only one that ever 
 loved me ; except poor old Mammy, nobody else loves me, 
 
 nobody ever will." 
 
 " My dear Miss Dolores," I began. 
 
 "Don't call me dear," she said; "you don't care for me, 
 nobody does, papa does n't, and I always loved him ; 
 everybody in the house wants to get rid of me, whether I 
 lke to go or not. I have always tried to be good and do 
 all you wanted, and I should think you might care for me 
 a little, but you don't." 
 
 " Dolores," I said, " 1 do care for you more than I do 
 for any one in the world ; I love you more than my own 
 will." 
 
 These were the very words I never meant to say, but 
 
278 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 X 
 
 somehow they seemed to utter themselves against my will 
 She looked at me for a moment as if she could not believe 
 her hearing, and then the blood flushed her face, and she 
 laid her head down on her arms. 
 
 At this moment Madame Mendoza and the other girls 
 came into the room in a clamor of admiration about a dia- 
 mond bracelet which had just arrived as a present from her 
 future husband. 
 
 It was a splendid thing, and had for its clasp his miniiv 
 tare, surrounded by the largest brilliants. 
 
 The enthusiasm of the party even at this moment could 
 not say anything in favor of the beauty of this miniature, 
 which, though painted on ivory, gave the impression of a 
 coarse-featured man, with a scar across one eye. 
 
 " No matter for the beauty," said one of the girls, " so 
 long as it is set with such diamonds." 
 
 " Come, Dolores," said another, giving her the present, 
 u pull off that old hair bracelet, and try this on." 
 
 Dolores threw the diamond bracelet from her with a 
 vehemence so unlike her gentle self as to startle every 
 one. 
 
 " I shall not take off my mother's bracelet for a gift from 
 a man I never knew," she said. " I hate diamonds. I 
 wish those who like such things might have them." 
 
 " Was ever anything so odd ? " said Madame Mendoza 
 
 "Dolores always was odd," said another of the gills 
 * nobody ever could tell what she would like." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE next day Senor Don Guzman de Cardona ar- 
 rived, and the whole house was in a commotion of excite- 
 ment. There was to be no school, and everything was 
 bustle and confusion. I passed my time in my own room 
 in reflecting severely upon myself for the imprudent words 
 by which I had thrown one more difficulty in the way of 
 this poor harassed child. 
 
 Dolores this day seemed perfectly passive in the hands of 
 her mother and sisters, who appeared disposed to show her 
 great attention. She allowed them to array her in her most 
 becoming dress, and made no objection to anything except 
 removing the bracelet from her arm. " Nobody's gifts 
 should take the place of her mother's," she said, and they 
 were obliged to be content with her wearing of the diamond 
 bracelet on the other arm. 
 
 Don Guzman was a large, plethoric man, with coarse 
 features and heavy gait. Besides the scar I have spoken 
 of, his face was adorned here and there with pimples, which 
 were not set down in the miniature. 
 
 In the course of the first hour's study, I saw him to be a 
 man of much the same stamp as Dolores's father sensual, 
 tyrannical, passionate. He seemed in his own way to be 
 much struck with the beauty of his intended wife, and was 
 not wanting in efforts to please her. All that I could see 
 in tier was the settled, passive paleness of despair. She 
 
230 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 played, sang, exhibited her embroidery and painting, at the 
 command of Madame Mendoza, with the air of an automa- 
 ton ; and Don Guzman remarked to her father on the pas- 
 sive obedience as a proper and hopeful trait. Once only 
 when he, in presenting her a flower, took the liberty of kiss- 
 ing her cheek, did I observe the flashing of her eye and 
 a movement of disgust and impatience, that she seemed 
 scarcely able to restrain. 
 
 The marriage was announced to take place the next week, 
 and a holiday was declared through the house. Nothing was 
 talked of or discussed but the corbeille de mariage which the 
 bridegroom had brought the dresses, laces, sets of jewels, 
 and cashmere shawls. Dolores never had been treated 
 with such attention by the family in her life. She rose im- 
 measurably in the eyes of all as the future possessor of such 
 wealth and such an establishment as awaited her. Madame 
 Mendoza had visions of future visits in Cuba rising before 
 her mind, and overwhelmed her daughter-in-law with flat- 
 teries and caresses, which she received in the same passive 
 silence as she did everything else. 
 
 For my own part, I tried to keep entirely by myself. I 
 remained in my room reading, and took my daily rides, ac- 
 companied by my servant seeing Dolores only at meal- 
 times, when I scarcely ventured to look at her. One night, 
 however, as I was walking through a lonely part of the 
 garden, Dolores suddenly stepped out from the shrubbery 
 and stood before me. It was bright moonlight, by which her 
 face and person were distinctly shown. How well I remem- 
 ber her as she looked then ! She was dressed in white 
 muslin, as she was fond of being, but it had been torn and 
 disordered by the haste with which she had come through 
 the shrubbery. Her face was fearfully pale, and her great 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 281 
 
 iark eyes had an unnatural brightness. She laid hold on 
 my arm. 
 
 "Look here," she said, "I saw you and came down to 
 speak with you." 
 
 She panted and trembled, so that for some moments she 
 could not speak another word. " I want to ask you," she 
 gasped, after a pause, " whether I heard you right? Did 
 you say " 
 
 " Yes, Dolores, you did. I did say what I had no right 
 to say, like a dishonorable man." 
 
 "But is it true"! Are you sure it is true?" she ?aid, 
 scarcely seeming to hear my words. 
 
 " God knows it is," said I despairingly. 
 
 " Then why don't you save me ? Why do you let them 
 sell me to this dreadful man ? He don't love me he 
 never will. Can't you take me away ? " 
 
 " Dolores, I am a poor man. I cannot give you any of 
 these splendors your father desires for you." 
 
 " Do you think I care for them ? I love you more than 
 all the world together. And if you do really love me, why 
 should we not be happy with each other ? " 
 
 " Dolores," I said, with a last effort to keep calm, " I am 
 much older than you, and know the world, and ought not to 
 take advantage of your simplicity. You have been so ac- 
 customed to abundant wealth and all it can give, that you 
 cannot form an idea of what the hardships and discomforts 
 of marrying a poor man would be. You are unused to hav- 
 ing the least care, or making the least exertion for yourself. 
 All the world would say that I acted a very dishonorable 
 part to take you from a position which offers you wraith, 
 splendor, and ease, to one of comparative hardship Per 
 haps soni3 day you would think so yourself." 
 
882 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 While I was speaking, Dolores turned me toward the 
 moonlight, and fixed her great dark eyes piercingly upon 
 me, as if she wanted to read ray soul. " Is that all ? " she 
 Bald ; '* is that the only reason ? " 
 
 " I do not understand you," said I. 
 
 She gave me such a desolate look, and answered in a tont 
 of utter dejection, " Oh, I did n't know, but perhaps you 
 might not want me. All the rest are so glad to sell me to 
 anybody that will take me. But you really do love me, 
 don't you ? " she added, laying her hand on mine. 
 
 What answer I made I cannot say. I only know that 
 every vestige of what is called reason and common sense 
 left me At that moment, and that there followed an hour of 
 delirium in which I we both were very happy we for- 
 got everything but each other, and we arranged all our 
 plans for flight. There was fortunately a ship lying in the 
 harbor of St. Augustine, the captain of which was known 
 to me. In course of a day or two passage was taken, and 
 my effects transported on board. Nobody seemed to suspect 
 us. Everything went on quietly up to the day before that 
 appointed for sailing. I took my usual rides, and did 
 everything as much as possible in my ordinary way, to dis- 
 arm suspicion, and none seemed to exist. The needed prepa- 
 rations went gayly forward. On the day I mentioned, when I 
 had ridden some distance from the house, a messenger came 
 post-haste after me. It was a boy who belonged specially to 
 Dolores. He gave me a little hurried note. I copy it : 
 
 " Papa has found all out, and it is dreadful. No one else 
 knows, and he means to kill you when you come back. Do 
 if you love me, hurry and get on board the ship. I shaL 
 nevei get over it, if evil comes on you for my sake. 1 shaft 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 283 
 
 let them do what they please with me, if God will only save 
 you. I will try to be good. Perhaps if I bear my trials 
 well, he will let me die soon. That is all I ask. I love 
 you, and always shall, to death and after. DOIORES." 
 
 There was the end of it all. I escaped on the ship. I 
 read the marriage in the paper. Incidentally I afterwards 
 heard of her as living in Cuba, but I never saw her again 
 till I saw her in her coffin. Sorrow and death had changed 
 her so much that at first the sight of her awakened only a 
 vague, painful remembrance. The sight of the hair bracelet 
 which I had seen on her arm brought all back, and I felt 
 sure that my poor Dolores had strangely come to sleep her 
 last sleep near me. 
 
 Immediately after I became satisfied who you were, I felt 
 a painful degree of responsibility for the knowledge. I 
 wrote at once to a friend of mine in the neighborhood of St 
 Augustine, to find out any particulars of the Mendoza family 
 I learned that its history had been like that of many others 
 in that region. Don Jose had died in a bilious fever, 
 brought on by excessive dissipation, and at his death the 
 estate was found to be so incumbered that the whole was 
 sold at auction. The slaves were scattered hither and 
 thither to different owners, and Madame Mendoza, with 
 her children and remains of fortune, had gone to live in 
 New Orleans. 
 
 Of Dolores he had heard but once since her marriage. A 
 friend had visited Don Guzman's estates in Cuba. lie was 
 Jiving in great splendor, but bore the character of a hard, 
 cruel, tyrannical master, and an overbearing man. His 
 wife was spoken of as being in very delicate health, avoid- 
 ing society and devoting herself to religion. 
 
284 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 I would hjre take occasion to say that it was understood 
 when I went into the family of Don Jose, that I should not 
 in any way interfere with the religious faith of the children, 
 the family being understood to belong to the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church. There was so little like religion of any kind 
 in the family, that the idea of their belonging to any faitb 
 savored something of the ludicrous. In the case of poor 
 Dolores, however, it was different. The earnestness of her 
 nature would always have made any religious form a reality 
 to her. In her case I was glad to remember that the Rom- 
 ish Church, amid many corruptions, preserves all the es- 
 sential beliefs necessary for our salvation, and that many 
 holy souls have gone to heaven through its doors. I there- 
 fore was only careful to direct her principal attention to the 
 more spiritual parts of her own faith, and to dwell on the 
 great themes which all Christian people hold in common. 
 
 Many of my persuasion would not have felt free (Q do 
 this, but my liberty of conscience in this respect was perfect. 
 I have seen that if you break the cup out of which a soul 
 has been used to take the wine of the gospel, you often 
 spill the very wine itself. And after all, these forms are 
 but shadows of which the substance is Christ. 
 
 I am free to say, therefore, that the thought that your 
 poor mother was devoting herself earnestly to religion, al- 
 though after the forms of a church with which I differ, wad 
 to me a source of great consolation, because I knew that in 
 that way alone could a soul like hers find peace. 
 
 I have never rested from my efforts to obtain more infor- 
 mation. A short time before the incident which cast you 
 upon our shore, I conversed with a sea-captain who had 
 .eturned from Cuba. He stated that there had been an 
 attempt at insurrection among the slaves of Don Guzman 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 285 
 
 in which a large part of the buildings and out-houses of the 
 estate had been consumed by fire. 
 
 On subsequent inquiry I learned that Don Guzman had 
 sold his estates and embarked for Boston with his wife and 
 family, and that nothing had subsequently been heard of 
 htm. 
 
 Thus, my young friend, I have told you all that 1 know 
 cf those singular circumstances which have cast your lot on 
 our shores. I do not expect that at your time of life you 
 will take the same view of this event that I do. You may 
 possibly very probably will consider it a loss not to 
 have been brought up as you might have been in the splen 
 did establishment of Don Guzman, and found yourself heir 
 to wealth and pleasure without labor or exertion. Yet I am 
 quite sure in that case that your value as a human being 
 would have been immeasurably less. I think I have seen 
 in you the elements of passions, which luxury and idleness 
 and the too early possession of irresponsible power, might 
 have developed with fatal results. You have simply to 
 reflect whether you would rather be an energetic, intelligent, 
 self-controlled man, capable of guiding the affairs of life and 
 of acquiring its prizes, or to be the reverse of all this, 
 with its prizes bought for you by the wealth of parents. 
 
 I hope mature reflection will teach you to regard with 
 gratitude that disposition of the All-Wise, which cast your 
 lot as it has been cast. 
 
 Let me ask one thing in closing. I have written for you 
 here many things most painful for me to remember, because 
 I wanted you to love and honor the memory of your mother. 
 I wanted that her memory should have something such a 
 charm for you as it has for me. With me, her image has 
 always stood between me and all other women ; but I have 
 
286 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 never even intimated to a living being that such a passage 
 in my history ever occurred, no, not even to my sister, 
 who is nearer to me than any other earthly creature. 
 
 In some respects I am a singular person in my habits, 
 and having once written this, you will pardon me if I ob- 
 serve that it will never be agreeable to me to have the 
 subject named between us. Look upon me always as a 
 friend, who would regard nothing as a hardship by which 
 he might serve the son of one so dear. 
 
 I have hesitated whether I ought to add one circumstance 
 more. I think I will do so, trusting to your good sense not 
 to give it any undue weight. 
 
 I have never ceased making inquiries in Cuba, as I found 
 opportunity, in regard to your father's property, and late 
 investigations have led me to the conclusion that he left a 
 considerable sum of money in the hands of a notary, whose 
 address I have, which, if your identity could be proved, 
 would come in course of law to you. I have written an 
 account of all the circumstances which, in my view, identify 
 you as the son of Don Guzman de Cardona, and had them 
 properly attested in legal form. 
 
 This, together with your mother's picture and the bracelet, 
 I recommend you to take on your next voyage, and to see 
 what may result from the attempt. How considerable the 
 gum may be which will result from this, I cannot say, but as 
 Don Guzman's fortune was very large, I am in hopes it maj 
 prove something worth attention. 
 
 At any time you may wish to call, I will have all thes* 
 things ready for you. 
 
 I am, with warm regard, 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 THEOPHILUS SEWELI. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 287 
 
 When Moses had finished reading this letter, he laid it 
 down on the pebbles beside him, and, leaning back against a 
 rock, looked moodily out to sea. The tide had washed quite 
 up to within a short distance of his feet, completely isolating 
 the little grotto where he sat from all the surrounding 
 scenery, and before him, passing and repassing on the blue 
 bright solitude of the sea, were silent ships, going on thetf 
 wondrous pathless ways to unknown lands. The letter had 
 Btirred all within him that was dreamy and poetic : he felt 
 somehow like a leaf torn from a romance, and blown 
 strangely into the hollow of those rocks. Something too of 
 ambition and pride stirred within him. He had been born 
 an heir of wealth and power, little as they had done for the 
 happiness of his poor mother ; and when he thought he 
 might have had these two wild horses which have run away 
 with so many young men, he felt, as young men all do, an 
 impetuous desire for their possession, and he thought as so 
 tnany do, " Give them to me, and I '11 risk my character, 
 I '11 risk my happiness." 
 
 The letter opened a future before him which was some- 
 thing to speculate upon, even though his reason told him it 
 was uncertain, and he lay there dreamily piling one air- 
 castle on another, unsubstantial as the great islands of 
 white cloud that sailed though the sky and dropped their 
 shadows in the blue sea. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when he bethought him he 
 must return home, and so climbing from rock to rock he 
 swung himself upward on to the island, and sought the 
 brown cottage. 
 
 As he passed by the open window he caught a glimpse of 
 Mara sewing. He walked softly up to look in without her 
 seeing him. She wa3 sitting with the various articles of his 
 
288 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 wardrobj around her, quietly and deftly mending his linen, 
 singing soft snatches of an old psalm-tune. 
 
 She seemed to have resumed quite naturally that quiet 
 care of him and his, which she had in all the earlier years 
 of their life. He noticed again her little hands, they 
 seemed a sort of wonder to him. Why had he never seen, 
 when a boy, how pretty they were ? And she had such 
 dainty little ways of taking up and putting down things as 
 she measured and clipped ; it seemed so pleasant to have her 
 handling his things ; it was as if a good fairy were touching 
 them, whose touch brought back peace. But then, he thought, 
 by and by she will do all this for some one else. The 
 thought made him angry. He really felt abused in antici- 
 pation. She was doing all this for him just in sisterly kind- 
 ness, and likely as not thinking of somebody else whom she 
 loved better all the time. It is astonishing how cool and 
 dignified this consideration made our hero as he faced up to 
 the window. He was, after all, in hopes she might blush, 
 and look agitated at seeing him suddenly ; but she did not. 
 The foolish boy did not know the quick wits of a girl, and 
 that all the while that be had supposed himself so sly, anil 
 been holding his breath to observe, Mara had been perfectly 
 cognizant of his presence, and had been schooling herself 
 to look as unconscious and natural as possible. So she 
 did, only saying, 
 
 " Oh, Moses, is that you ? Where have you been all 
 day?" 
 
 " Oh, I went over to see Parson Sewell, and get my pas- 
 oral lecture, you know." 
 
 ' And did you stay to dinner ? " 
 
 " No ; I came home and went rambling round the rocks 
 jind got into our old cave, and never knew how the timi 
 passed." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 289 
 
 " Why, then you 've had no dinner, poor boy," said Mara, 
 rising suddenly. " Come in quick, you must be fed or you '11 
 get dangerous and eat somebody." 
 
 "No, no, don't get anything," said Moses, "it's almost 
 supper- -time, and I'm not hungry." 
 
 And Moses threw himself into a chair, and began ab- 
 stractedly snipping a piece of tape with Mara's very best 
 scissors. 
 
 u If you please, sir, don't demolish that ; I was going to 
 stay one of your collars with it," said Mara. 
 
 " Oh, hang it, I *m always in mischief among girls* 
 Jungs," said Moses, putting down the scissors and picking 
 up a bit of white wax, which with equal unconsciousness, 
 he began kneading in his hands, while he was dreaming 
 over the strange contents of the morning's letter. 
 
 " I hope Mr. Sewell did n't say anything to make you 
 look so very gloomy," said Mara. 
 
 " Mr. Sewell ? " said Moses, starting ; " no, he did n't ; 
 in fact, I had a pleasant call there ; and there was that con- 
 founded old sphinx of a Miss Roxy there. Why don't she 
 die ? She must be somewhere near a hundred years old by 
 this time." 
 
 "Never thought to ask her why she didn't die," said 
 Mara ; " but I presume she has the best of reasons for 
 living." 
 
 " Yes, that 's so," said Moses ; " every old toadstool, and 
 burdock, and mullein lives and thrives and lasts ; no danger 
 cf their dying." 
 
 "You seem to be in a charitable frame of mind," said 
 Mara. 
 
 " Confound it all ! I hate this world If I could have mj 
 wn waj now, if I could have just what I wanted, and 
 13 
 
290 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 do just as I please exactly, I might make a pretty good 
 thing of it." 
 
 " And pray \* hat would you have ? " said Mara. 
 
 "Well, in the first place, riches." 
 
 " In the first place ? " 
 
 a Yes, in theirs* place, I say ; for money buys everything 
 else." 
 
 "Well, supposing so," said Mara, "for argument's sake, 
 what would you buy with it ? " 
 
 " Position in society, respect, consideration, and I 'd 
 have a splendid place, with everything elegant. I have 
 ideas enough, only give me the means. And then I 'd have 
 a wife, of course." 
 
 "And how much would you pay for her?" said Mara, 
 looking quite cool. 
 
 " I 'd buy her with all the rest, a girl that would n't 
 look at me as I am, would take me for all the rest, you 
 know, that's the way of the world." 
 
 "It is, is it?" said Mara. "I don't understand such 
 matters much." 
 
 " Yes ; it 's the way with all you girls," said Moses ; " it 's 
 the way you '11 marry when you do." 
 
 " Don't be so fierce about it. I have n't done it yet/' 
 said Mara ; " but now, really, I must go and set the supper- 
 table when I have put these things away," and Mara 
 gathered an armful of things together, and tripped singing 
 up-stairs, and arranged them in the drawer of Moses' room, 
 " Will his wife like to do all these little things for him as I 
 do?" she thought. "It's natural I should. I grew up 
 with him, and love him, just as if he were my own brother, 
 he is all the brother I ever had. I love him more thau 
 unything else in the world, and this wife he talks aboul 
 could do no more." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. '255 
 
 * She don't care a pin about me," thought Moses ; " it 'a 
 only a habit she has got, and her strict notions of duty 
 that 'a all. She is housewifely in her instincts, and seizes 
 Rll neglected linen and garments as her lawful prey, she 
 would do it just the same for her grandfather ; " and Moses 
 drummed moodily on the window-pare. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE timbers of the ship which was to carry the fortunes 
 of our here were laid by the side of Middle Bay. and 
 all these romantic shores could hardly present a lovelier 
 scene. 
 
 This beautiful sheet of water separates Harpswell from 
 a portion of Brunswick. Its shores are rocky and pine- 
 crowned, and display the most picturesque variety of out- 
 line. Eagle Island, Shelter Island, and one or two smaller 
 ones, lie on the glassy surface like soft clouds of green 
 foliage pierced through by the steel-blue tops of arrowy 
 pine-trees. 
 
 There were a goodly number of shareholders in the pro- 
 jected vessel ; some among the most substantial men in the 
 vicinity. Zephaniah Fennel had invested there quite a solid 
 sum, as had also our friend Captain Kittridge. Moses had 
 placed therein the proceeds of his recent voyage, which 
 enabled him to buy a certain number of shares, and he 
 secretly revolved in his mind whether the sum of money 
 left by his father might not enable him to buy the whole 
 ship. Then a few prosperous voyages, and his fortune was 
 made ! 
 
 He went into the business of building the new vessel with 
 all the enthusiasm with which he used when a boy to plan 
 ships and mould anchors. Every day he was off at early 
 iawn in his working-clothes, and labored steadily among th 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAXD. 293 
 
 men till evening. No matter how early he ros*;, however, 
 hf> always found that a good fairy had been before him and 
 prepared his dinner, daintily sometimes adding thereto a fra- 
 grant little bunch of flowers. But when his boat returned 
 home at evening, he no longer saw her as in the days of 
 girlhood waiting far out on the farthest point of rock for 
 his return. Not that she did not watch for it and run out 
 many times toward sunset ; but the moment she had mado 
 out that it was surely he, she would run back into the house, 
 and very likely find an errand in her own room, where sho 
 would be so deeply engaged that it would be necessary foi 
 him to call her down before she could make her appearance 
 Then she came smiling, chatty, always gracious, and ready 
 to go or to come as he requested, the very cheerfulest 
 of household fairies, but yet for all that there was a cob- 
 web invisible barrier around her that for some reason or 
 other he could not break ove.. It vexed and perplexed 
 him, and day after day he determined to whistle it down, 
 ride over it rough-shod, and be as free as he chose with 
 this apparently soft, unresistant, airy being, who seemed so 
 accessible. Why should n't he kiss her when he chose, and 
 sit with his arm around her waist, and draw her familiarly 
 apon his keee, this little child-woman, who was as a sister 
 to him ? Why, to be sure ? Had she ever frowned or 
 icolded as Sally Kittridge did when he attempted to pass 
 the air-line that divides man from womanhood ? Not at all. 
 She had neither blushed nor laughed, nor ran away. If he 
 kissed her, she took it with the most matter-of-fact compo- 
 Bure ; if he passed his arm around her, she let it remain 
 with uninoved calmness ; and so somehow he did these 
 things less and less, and wondered why. 
 
 The fact is, our hero had begun an experiment with hii 
 
291 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 little friend that we would never advise a young man to 
 try on one of these intense, quiet, soft-seeming women 
 whose whole life is inward. He had determined to find out 
 whether she loved him before he committed himself to her 
 and the strength of a whole book of martyrs is in women 
 to endure and to bear without flinching before they will 
 surrender the gate of this citadel of silence. Moreover, 
 our hero had begun his siege with precisely the worst 
 weapons. 
 
 For on the night that he returned and found Mara con- 
 versing with a stranger, the suspicion arose in his mind 
 that somehow Mara might be particularly interested in 
 him, and instead of asking her, which anybody might 
 consider the most feasible step in the case, he asked Sally 
 Kittridge. 
 
 Sally's inborn, inherent \>ve of teasing was up in a 
 moment. 
 
 Did she know anything of that Mr. Adams ? Of course 
 she did, a young lawyer of one of the best Boston fam- 
 ilies, a splendid fellow, she wished any such luck might 
 happen to her ! Was Mara engaged to him ? What would 
 he give to know ? Why did n't he ask Mara ? Did he 
 expect her to reveal her friend's secrets ? Well, she 
 should n't, report said Mr. Adams was well to do in the 
 world, and had expectations from an uncle, and did n't 
 Moses think he was interesting in conversation ? Every- 
 body said what a conquest it was for an Orr's Island girl, 
 etc., etc. And Sally said the rest with many a malicious 
 toss and wink and sly twinkle of the dimples of her cheek, 
 Which might mean more or less as a young man of imag 
 inative temperament was disposed to view it. Now tlm 
 WHS all done in pure simple love of teasing. We incline 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 293 
 
 U> thiiik phrenologists have as yet been very incomplete in 
 their classification of faculties, or they would have ap- 
 oomted a separate organ for this propensity of human na- 
 ture. Certain persons, often the most kind-hearted in the 
 world, and who would not give pain in any serious matter, 
 seem to have an insatiable appetite for those small annoy- 
 ances we commonly denominate teasing, and Sally was 
 one of this number. 
 
 She diverted herself infinitely in playing upon the excit- 
 ability of Moses, in awaking his curiosity, and baffling 
 it, and tormenting him with a whole phantasmagoria of 
 suggestions and assertions, which played along so near the 
 line of probability, that one could never tell which might be. 
 fancy and whicli might be fact. 
 
 Moses therefore pursued the line of tactics for such cases 
 made and provided, and strove to awaken jealousy in Mara 
 by paying marked and violent attentions to Sally. He went 
 there evening . after evening, leaving Mara to sit alone at 
 home. He made secrets with her, and alluded to them be- 
 fore Mara. He proposed calling his new vessel the Sally 
 Kittridge ; but whether all these things made Mara jealous 
 or not, he crald never determine. Mara had no peculiar 
 gift for acting, except in this one point ; but here all the 
 vitality of nature rallied to her support, and enabled her 
 to preserve a air of the most unperceiving serenity. If 
 tthe shed any tears when she spent a long, lonesome even- 
 ing, she was quite particular to be looking in a very placid 
 frame when Moses returned, and to give such an account 
 of the books, or the work, or paintings which had interested 
 her, that Moses was sure to be vexed. Never were her 
 inquiries for Sally more cordial, never did she seem in 
 spired by a more ardent affection for her 
 
296 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Whatever may have been the result of this stale ol 
 things in regard to Mara, it is certain that Moses succeeded 
 in convincing the common fame of that district that he and 
 Sally were destined for each other, and the thing was reg- 
 ularly discussed at quilting frolics and tea-drinkings around, 
 much to Miss Emily's disgust and Aunt Roxy's grave sat- 
 isfaction, who declared that " Mara was altogether too good 
 for Moses Fennel, but Sally Kittridge would make him 
 stand round," by which expression she was understood 
 to intimate that Sally had in her the rudiments of the same 
 kind of domestic discipline which had operated so favorably 
 in the case of Captain Kittridge. 
 
 These things, of course, had come to Mara's ears. She 
 had overheard the discussions on Sunday noons as the peo- 
 ple between meetings sat over their doughnuts and cheese, 
 and analyzed their neighbors' affairs, and she seemed to 
 smile at them all. Sally only laughed, and declared that 
 it was no such thing ; that she would no more marry Moses 
 Fennel or any other fellow than she would put her head 
 into the fire. What did she want of any of them ? She 
 knew too much to get married, that she did. She waa 
 going to have her liberty for one while yet to come, etc., 
 etc. ; but all these assertions were of course supposed to 
 mean nothing but the usual declarations in such cases. 
 Mara among the rest thought it quite likely that this thing 
 was yet to be. 
 
 So she struggled and tried to reason down a pain which 
 .Constantly ached in her heart when she thought of this 
 She ought to have foreseen that it must some time end ir 
 this way. Of course she must have known that Moses 
 would some time choose a wife ; and how fortunate that, 
 instead of a stranger, he had chosen her most intimate 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 297 
 
 friend. Sally was careless and thoughtless, to be sure, but 
 she had a good generous heart at the bottom, and she hoped 
 phe would love Moses at least as well as she did, and the? 
 she would always live with them, and think of any littl* 
 things that Sally might forget. 
 
 After all, Sally was so much more capable and efficient a 
 person than herself, so much more bustling and energetic, 
 fihe would make altogether a better house-keeper, and doubt- 
 less a better wife for Moses. 
 
 But then it was so hard that he did not tell her about 
 it. Was she not his sister ? his confidant for all his 
 childhood ? and why should he shut up his heart from 
 her now ? But then she must guard herself from being 
 jealous, that would be mean and wicked. So Mara, in 
 her zeal of self-discipline, pushed on matters ; invited Sally 
 to tea to meet Moses ; and when she came, left them alone 
 together while she busied herself in hospitable cares. She 
 sent Moses with errands and commissions to Sally, which 
 he was sure to improve into protracted visits ; and in short, 
 no young match-maker ever showed more good-will to for- 
 ward the union of two chosen friends than Mara showed to 
 unite Moses and Sally. 
 
 So the flirtation went on all summer, like a ship under 
 full sail, wnh prosperous breezes ; and Mara, in the many 
 hours that her two best friends were together, tried heroi- 
 cally to persuade herself that she was not unhappy. She 
 said to herself constantly that she never had loved Moses 
 other than as a brother, and repeated and dwelt upon the 
 fact to her own mind with a pertinacity which might have 
 Jed her to suspect the reality of the fact, had she had ex 
 perience enough to look closer. True, it was rather lonely, 
 she said, but that she was used to, sL3 always had been 
 13* 
 
298 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 and always should be. Nobody would ever love her il 
 return as she loved; which sentence she did not analyze 
 very closely, or she might have remembered Mr. Adami 
 and one or two others, who had professed more for her 
 than she had found herself able to return. That general 
 proposition about nobody is commonly found, if sifted to 
 the bottom, to have specific relation to somebody whose name 
 never appears in the record. 
 
 Nobody could have conjectured from Mara's calm, gen- 
 tle cheerfulness of demeanor, that any sorrow lay at the 
 bottom of her heart ; she would not have owned it to 
 herself. 
 
 There are griefs which grow with years, which have no 
 marked beginnings, no especial dates; they are not events, 
 but slow perceptions of disappointment, which bear down on 
 the heart with a constant and equable pressure like the 
 weight of the atmosphere, and these things are never named 
 or counted in words among life's sorrows; yet through them, 
 as through an unsuspected inward wound, life, energy, and 
 vigor, slowly bleed away, and the persons, never owning 
 even to themselves the weight of the pressure, standing, 
 to all appearance, fair and cheerful, are still undermined with 
 a secret wear of this inner current, and ready to fall with the 
 first external pressure. 
 
 There are persons often brought into near contact by the 
 relations of life, and bound to each other by a love so 
 close, that they are perfectly indispensable to each other 
 vLo yot act upon each other as a file upon a diamond, by a 
 slow and gradual friction, the pain of which is so equablts 
 10 constantly diffused through life, as scarcely ever at any 
 tfine to force itself upon the mind as a reality. 
 
 Such had Veen the history of the affection of Mara fof 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 29$ 
 
 Moses, It had been a deep, inward, concentrated passion 
 that had almost absorbed self-consciousness, and made her 
 keenly alive to all the moody, restless, passionate changes 
 of his nature ; it had brought with it that craving for sym- 
 pathy and return which such love ever will, and yet it waa 
 fixed upon a nature so different and so uncomprehending 
 that the action had for years been one of pain more than 
 pleasure. Even now, when she had him at home with her 
 and busied herself with constant cares for him, there was 
 a sort of disturbing, unquiet element in the history of every 
 day. The longing for him to come home at night, the wish 
 that he would stay with hei the uncertainty whether he 
 would or would not go and spend the evening with Sally, 
 the musing during the day over all that he had done and 
 said the day before, were a constant interior excitement. 
 For Moses, besides being in his moods quite variable and 
 changeable, had also a good deal of the dramatic element 
 in him, and put on sundry appearances in the way of ex- 
 periment. 
 
 He would feign to have quarrelled with Sally, that he 
 might detect whether Mara would betray some gladness ; 
 but she only evinced concern and a desire to make up the 
 difficulty. He would discuss her character and her fitness 
 to make a man happy in matrimony in the style that young 
 gentlemen use who think their happiness a point of great 
 consequence in the creation ; and Mara, always cool, and 
 firm, and sensible, Avould talk with him in the most maternal 
 style possible, and caution him against trifling with her af- 
 fections. Then again he would be lavish in his praise of 
 Sally's beauty, vivacity, and energy, and Mara would join 
 with the most apparently unaffected delight. Sometimes he 
 ventured, on the Mher side, to rally her on some fufur* 
 
NX) THL PEARL OF ORR'S 
 
 husband, and predict the days when all the attentions which 
 she was daily bestowing on him would be for another ; and 
 here, as everywhere else, he found his little Sphinx per- 
 fectly inscrutable. Instinct teaches the grass-bird, who hides 
 her eggs under long meadow grass, to creep timidly yarda 
 from the nest, and then fly up boldly in the wrong place ; 
 and a like instinct teaches shy girls all kinds of unconscious 
 stratagems when the one secret of their life is approached. 
 They may be as truthful in all other things as the strictest 
 Puritan, but here they deceive by an infallible necessity. 
 And meanwhile where was Sally Kittridge in all this mat- 
 ter ? Was her heart in the least touched by the black eyes 
 and long lashes ? Who can say ? Had she a heart ? Well, 
 Sally was a good girl. When one got sufficiently far down 
 through the foam and froth of the surface, to find what was 
 in the depths of her nature, there was abundance there of 
 good womanly feeling, generous and strong, if one could but 
 get at it. 
 
 She was the best and brightest of daughters to the old 
 Captain, whose accounts she kept, whose clothes she mended, 
 whose dinner she often dressed and carried to him, from lov* 
 ing choice ; and Mrs. Kittridge regarded her housewifely 
 accomplishments with "pride, though she never spoke to he* 
 otherwise than in words of criticism and rebuke, as in hex 
 view an honest mother should who means to keep a flourish, 
 ing sprig of a daughter within limits of a proper humility. 
 
 But as for any sentiment or love toward any person of tlu 
 other sex, Sally, as yet, had it not. Her numerous admirer* 
 were only so many subjects for the exercise of her dear de- 
 light of teasing, and Moses Pennel, the last and most con 
 siderable, differed from the rest only in the fact that he was 
 match for her in this redoubtable art and science, and thii 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 301 
 
 made the game she was playing with him altogether morf 
 stimulating than that she had carried on with any other of 
 her admirers. For Moses could sulk and storm for effect, 
 and clear off as bright as Harpswell Bay after a thunder- 
 storm for effect also. Moses could play jealous, and 
 make believe all those thousand-and-one shadowy nothings 
 that coquettes, male and female, get up to carry their poiutfl 
 with ; and so their quarrels and their makings-up were as 
 manifold as the sea-breezes that ruffled the ocean before the 
 Captain's door. 
 
 There is but one danger in play of this kind, and that 13, 
 that deep down in the breast of every slippery, frothy, elfish 
 Undine sleeps the germ of an unawakened soul, which sud- 
 denly, in the course of some such trafficking with the out- 
 ward shows and seemings of affection, may wake up and 
 make of the teasing, tricksy elf a sad and earnest woman 
 a creature of loves and self-denials and faithfulness unto 
 death in short, something altogether too good, too sacred 
 to be trifled with ; and when a man enters the game pro- 
 tected by a previous attachment which absorbs all his nature, 
 and the woman awakes in all her depth and strength to fee 
 the real meaning of love and life, she finds that she has 
 played with one stronger than she, at a terrible disad- 
 vantage. 
 
 Is this mine lying'dark and evil under the saucy littia 
 feet of our Sally ? Well, we should not of course be ew 
 prised some day to find it so. 
 
302 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 OCTOBER is come, and among the black glooms of thi 
 pine forests flare out the scarlet branches of the rock-maple, 
 and the beech-groves are all arrayed in gold, through which 
 the sunlight streams in subdued richness. October is come 
 with long, bright, hazy days, swathing in purple mists the 
 rainbow brightness of the forests, and blending the otherwise 
 gaudy and flaunting colors into wondrous harmonies of 
 splendor. And Moses Fennel's ship is all built and ready, 
 waiting only a favorable day for her launching. . 
 
 And just at this moment Moses is sauntering home from 
 Captain Kittridge's in company with Sally, for Mara has 
 sent him to bring her to tea with them. Moses is in high 
 spirits ; everything has succeeded to his wishes ; and as the 
 two walk along the high, bold, rocky shore, his eye glances 
 out to the open ocean, where the sun is setting, and the 
 fresh wind blowing, and the white sails flying, and already 
 fancies himself a sea-king, commanding his own palace, and 
 going from land to land. 
 
 " There has n't been a more beautiful ship built here these 
 twenty years," he says, in triumph. 
 
 " Oho, Mr. Conceit," said Sally, " that 's only because it 'g 
 yours now your geese are all swans. I wish you could 
 have seen the Typhoon, that Ben Drummond sailed in ? 
 real handsome fellow he was. What a pity there ar* n' 4 
 more like him ! " 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 303 
 
 " I don't enter on the merits of Ben Drummond's beauty," 
 said Moses , " but I don't believe the Typhoon was one 
 whit superior to our ship. Besides, Miss Sally, I thought 
 you were going to take it under your especial patronage, and 
 let me honor it with your name." 
 
 " How absurd you always will be talking about that 
 why don't you call it after Mara ? " 
 
 " After Mara ? " said Moses. " I don't want to it 
 would n't be appropriate one wants a different kind of 
 girl to name a ship after something bold and bright 
 and dashing ! " 
 
 " Thank you, sir, but I prefer not to have my bold and 
 dashing qualities immortalized in this way," said Sally ; 
 * besides, sir, how do I know that you would n't run me on a 
 rock the very first thing ? When I give my name to a ship, 
 it must have an experienced commander,'' she added, mali- 
 ciously, for she knew that Moses was specially vulnerable 
 on this point. 
 
 "As you please," said Moses, with heightened color. 
 *' Allow me to remark that he who shall ever undertake to 
 command the * Sally Kittridge ' will have need of all his 
 experience and then, perhaps, not be able to know the 
 ways of the craft." 
 
 " See him now," said Sally, with a malicious laugh ; " we 
 are getting wrathy, are we ? " 
 
 " Not I," said Moses ; " it would cost altogether too much 
 exertion to get angry at every teasing thing you choose to 
 Bay, Miss Sally. By and by I shall be gone, and then won't 
 vour conscience trouble you ? " 
 
 " My conscience is all easy, so far as you are concerned, 
 sir ; your self-esteem is too deep-rooted to suffer much from 
 my poor little nips they produce no more impiession than 
 
804 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 a cat-bird pecking at the cones of that spruce-tree yonder 
 Now don't you put your hand where your heart is supposed 
 to be there 's nobody at home there, you know. There 's 
 Mara coming to meet us ; " and Sally bounded forward to 
 meet Mara with all those demonstrations of extreme deliglA 
 which young girls are fond of showering on each other. 
 
 " It 's such a beautiful evening," said Mara, " and we arc 
 all in such good spirits about Moses' ship, and I told him you 
 must come down and hold counsel with us as to what was to 
 be done about the launching and the name, you knov, 
 that is to be decided on are you going to let it be called 
 after you ? " 
 
 " Not I, indeed. I should always be reading in the papers 
 of horrible accidents that had happened to the ' Sally Kit- 
 tridge.' " 
 
 " Sally has so set her heart on my being unlucky," said 
 Moses, " that I believe if I make a prosperous voyage, the 
 disappointment would injure her health." 
 
 " She does n't mean what she says/' said Mara ; " but I 
 think there are some objections in a young lady's name 
 oeing given to a ship." 
 
 "Then I suppose, Mara," said Moses, "that you would 
 not have yours either ? " 
 
 " I would be glad to accommodate you in anything but 
 that," said Mara, quietly ; but she added, " Why need the 
 ship be named for anybody ? A ship is such s beautiful, 
 graceful thing, it should have a fancy name." 
 
 " Well, suggest one," said Moses. 
 
 " Don't you remember," said Mara, " one Satuiday after- 
 noon, when you and Sally and I launched your little ship 
 down in the cove after you had come home from your firsf 
 royage at the Banks." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 305 
 
 " I do," said Sally. " We called that the Ariel, Mara, 
 lifter that old torn play you were so fond of. That 's a 
 pretty name for a ship." 
 
 " Why not take that ? " said Mara. 
 
 "1 bow to the decree," said Moses. "The Ariel it shall 
 be." 
 
 " Yes ; and you remember," said Sally, " Mr. Moses here 
 promised at that time that he would build a ship, and Jike 
 us two round the world with him." 
 
 Moses' eyes fell upon Mara as Sally said these words 
 with a sort of sudden earnestness of expression which struck 
 her. He was really feeling very much about something, 
 under all the bantering disguise of his demeanor, she said 
 to herself. Could it be that he felt unhappy about his pros- 
 pects with Sally ? That careless liveliness of hers might 
 wound him perhaps now, when he felt that he was soon to 
 leave her. 
 
 Mara was conscious herself of a deep undercurrent of 
 sadness as the time approached for the ship to sail that 
 should carry Moses from her, and she could not but think 
 some such feeling must possess her mind. In vain sh 
 looked into Sally's great Spanish eyes for any signs of a 
 lurking softness or tenderness concealed under her sparkling 
 vivacity. Sally's eyes were admirable windows of exactly 
 the right size and color for an earnest, tender spirit to look 
 out of, but just now there was nobody at the casement but 9 
 slippery elf peering out in tricksy defiance. 
 
 When the three arrived at the house, tea was waiting OB 
 the table for them. Mara fancied that Moses looked sa<? 
 and preoccupied as they sat down to the tea-table, whicfe 
 Mrs. Fennel had set forth festively, with the best china and 
 the finest table-cloth and the choicest sweetmeats. In fact 
 
30G THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 Moses did feel that sort of tumult and upheaving of the soul 
 which a young man experiences when the great crisis comes 
 which is to plunge him into the struggles of manhood. It is 
 a time when he wants sympathy and is grated upon by un- 
 comprehending merriment, and therefore his answers to 
 Sally grew brief and even harsh at times, and Mara some- 
 times perceived him looking at herself with a singular fixed- 
 !QC3S of expression, though he withdrew his eyes whenever 
 she turned hers to look on him. Like many another little 
 woman, she had fixed a theory about her friends, into which 
 she was steadily interweaving all the facts she saw. Sally 
 must love Moses, because she had known her from child- 
 hood as a good and affectionate girl, and it was impossible 
 that she could have been going on with Moses as she had 
 for the last six months without loving him. She must evi- 
 dently have seen that he cared for her ; and in how many 
 ways had she shown that she liked his society and him 1 
 But then evidently she did not understand him, and Mara 
 felt a little womanly self-pluming on the thought that she 
 knew him so much better. She was resolved that she would 
 talk with Sally about it, and show her that she was disap- 
 pointing Moses and hurting his feelings. Yes, she said to 
 herself, Sally has a kind heart, and her coquettish desire to 
 conceal from him the extent of her affection ought now 
 to give way to the outspoken tenderness of real love. 
 
 So Mara pressed Sally with the old-times request to stay 
 and sleep with her ; for these two, the only young girls in so 
 lonely a neighborhood, had no means of excitement or dissi- 
 pation beyond this occasional sleeping together by whict 
 is meant, of course, lying awake all night talking. 
 
 When they were alone together in their chamber, Sally 
 let down her long black hair, and stoo-1 with her bach 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 307 
 
 to Mara brushing it. Mara sat looking out of the win- 
 dow, where the moon was making a wide sheet of silver- 
 sparkling water. Everything was so quiet that the restless 
 dash of the tide could be plainly heard. Sally was rattling 
 away with her usual gayety. 
 
 " And so the launching is to come off next Thursday. 
 What shall you wear ? " 
 
 " 1 'm sure I have n't thought," said Mara. 
 
 " Well, I shall try and finish my blue merino for the oc- 
 casion. What fun it will be ! I never was on a ship when 
 it was launched, and I think it will be something perfectly 
 splendid ! " 
 
 " But does n't it sometimes seem sad to think that after all 
 this Moses will leave us to be gone so long ? " 
 
 " What do I care ? " said Sally, tossing back her long 
 hair as she brushed it, and then stopping to examine one 
 of her eyelashes. 
 
 " Sally dear, you often speak in that way," said Mara, 
 " but really and seriously, you do yourself great injustice. 
 You could not certainly have been going on as you have 
 these six months past with a man you did not care for." 
 
 " Well, I do care for him, < sort o',' " said Sally ; " but is 
 that any reason I should break my heart for his going? 
 that 's too much for any man." 
 
 " But, Sally, you must know that Moses loves you.' 
 
 " I 'm not so sure," said Sally, freakishly tossing lur head 
 and laughing. 
 
 " If he did not," said Mara, " why has he sought you so 
 much, and taken every opportunity to be with you? "I'm 
 sure I Ve been left here alone hour after hour, when my 
 only comfort was that it was because my two best friends 
 Joved each other, as I know they must some time love some 
 one better than they do me." 
 
308 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 The most practised self-control must fail some time, and 
 Mara's voice faltered on these last words, and she put hei 
 hands over her eyes. Sally turned quickly and looked at 
 her, then giving her hair a sudden fold round her shoulders, 
 and running to her friend, she kneeled down on the floor by 
 her, and put her arms round her waist, and looked up into 
 her face with an air of more gravity than she commonly 
 used. 
 
 " Now, Mara, what a wicked, inconsistent fool I have 
 been ! Did you feel lonesome ? did you care ? I ought 
 to have seen that ; but I 'm selfish, I love admiration, and I 
 love to have some one to flatter me, and run after me ; and 
 BO I 've been going on and on in this silly way. But I 
 did n't know you cared indeed, I did n't you are such 
 a deep little thing. Nobody can ever tell what you feel. I 
 never shall forgive myself, if you have been lonesome, for 
 you are worth five hundred times as much as I am. You 
 really do love Moses. I don't." 
 
 " I do love him as a dear brother," said Mara. 
 
 u Dear fiddlestick," said Sally. " Love is love ; and when 
 a person loves all she can, it is n't much use to talk so. I 've 
 been a wicked sinner, that I have. Love ? Do you sup- 
 pose 1 would bear with Moses Fennel all his ins and outs 
 and up and downs, and be always putting him before myself 
 in everything, as you do? No, I couldn't; I haven't it in 
 me ; but you have. He 's a sinner, too, and deserves to get 
 me for a wife. But, Mara, I have tormented him well 
 there 's some comfort in that." 
 
 " It 's no comfort to me," said Mara. " I see his heart w 
 set on you the happiness of his life depends on you 
 and that he is pained and hurt when you give him only cold, 
 trifling words when he needs real true love. It is a serious 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 309 
 
 thing, dear, to have a strong man set hi^ whole heart on you 
 It will do him a great good or a great evil, and you ought not 
 to make light of it." 
 
 " Oh, pshaw, Mara, you don't know these fellows ; they 
 are only playing games with us. If they once catch us, 
 they have no mercy ; and for one here 's a child that is n't 
 going to be caught. I can see plain enough that Moses 
 Fennel has been trying to get me in love with him, but 
 he does n't love me. No, he does n't," said Sally, reflec- 
 tively. " He only wants to make a conquest of me, and 
 I 'm just the same. I want to make a conquest of him, 
 at least I have been wanting to, but now I see it's a false, 
 wicked kind of way to do as we *ve been doing." 
 
 " And is it really possible, Sally, that you don't love 
 him?" said Mara, her large, serious eyes looking into 
 Sally's. " What ! be with him so much, seem to like 
 him so much, look at him as I have seen you do, and 
 not love him ! " 
 
 " I can't help my eyes ; they will look so," said Sally, 
 hiding her face in Mara's lap with a sort of coquettish 
 consciousness. " I tell you I 've been silly and wicked ; 
 but he 's just the same exactly." 
 
 " And you have worn his ring all summer ? " 
 
 " Yes, and he has worn mine ; and I have a lock of his 
 hair, and he has a lock of mine ; yet I don't believe he cares 
 for them a bit. Oh, his heart is safe enough. If he has 
 any, it is n't with me : that I know." 
 
 *' But if you found it were, Sally ? Suppose you found 
 that, after all, you were the one love and hope of his life ; 
 that all he was doing aud thinking was for you ; that he was 
 laboring, and toiling, and leaving home, so that he might 
 lome day offer you a heart and home, and be you* bes* 
 
510 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 friend for life ? Perhaps he dares not tell you how ha 
 really does feel. w 
 
 " It 's no such thing ! it 's no such thing ! " said Sally, lift 
 ing up her head, with her eyes full of tears, which she dashed 
 angrily away. " What am I crying for ? I hate him. I 'm 
 glad he 's going away. Lately it has beer such a trouble to 
 me to have things go on so. I 'm realty getting to dislike 
 him. You are the one he ought to love. Perhaps all this 
 time you are the one he does love," said Sally, with a sudden 
 energy, as if a new thought had dawned in her mind. 
 
 " Oh, no ; he does not even love me as he once did, when 
 we were children," said Mara. " He is so shut up in him- 
 self, so reserved, I know nothing about what passes in his 
 heart." 
 
 "No more does anybody," said Sally. "Moses Pennel 
 is n't one that says and does things straightforward be- 
 cause he feels so ; but he says and does them to see what 
 you will do. That 's his way. Nobody knows why he haa 
 been going on with me as he has. He has had his own rea- 
 sons, doubtless, as I have had mine." 
 
 " He has admired you very much, Sally," said Mara, 
 " and praised you to me very warmly. He thinks you 
 aie so handsome. I could tell you ever so many things 
 he has said about you. He knows as I do that you are a 
 more enterprising, practical sort of body than I am, too. 
 Everybody thinks you are engaged. I have heard it spoken 
 of everywhere." 
 
 " Everybody is mistaken, then, as usual," said Sally, 
 "Perhaps Aunt Roxy was in the right of it when she 
 said that Moses would never be in love with anybody 
 but himself." 
 
 " Aunt Iloxy has always been prejudiced and unjust tf 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 311 
 
 Moses," said Mara, her cheeks flushing. " She never liked 
 him from a child, and she never can be made to see anything 
 good in him. I know that he has a deep heart, a nature 
 that craves affection and sympathy ; and it is only because 
 he is so sensitive that he is so reserved and conceals his 
 feelings so much. He has a noble, kind heart, and I believe 
 he truly loves you, Sally ; it must be so." 
 
 Sally rose from the floor and went on arranging her hair 
 without speaking. Something seemed to disturb her mind. 
 She bit her lip, and threw down the brush and comb violent- 
 ly. In the clear depths of the little square of looking-glass 
 a face looked into hers, whose eyes were perturbed as if with 
 the shadows of some coming inward storm : the black brows 
 were knit, and the lips quivered. She drew a long breath 
 and burst out into a loud laugh. 
 
 " What are you laughing at now ? " said Mara, who stood 
 in her white night-dress by the window, with her hair falling 
 in golden waves about her face. 
 
 " Oh, because these fellows are so funny," said Sally ; 
 " it 's such fun to see their actions. Come now," she added, 
 turning to Mara, " don't look so grave and sanctified. It 's 
 better to laugh than cry about things, any time. It 's a great 
 deal better to be made hard-hearted like me, and not care 
 for anybody, than to be like you, for instance. The idea 
 of any one's being in love is the drollest thing to me. I 
 have n't the least idea how it feels. I wonder if I evci 
 shall be in love ! " 
 
 " It will come to you in its time, Sally." 
 
 " Oh yes, I suppose like the chicken-pox or the whoop- 
 .ng cough," said Sally ; " one of the things to be gon* 
 through with, and rather disagreeable while it lasts, st 
 I hope to put it off as long as possible." 
 
812 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 * Well, come," said Mara, " we must not sit up all night." 
 
 After the two girls were nestled into bed and the light out, 
 instead of the brisk chatter there fell a great silence between 
 them. 
 
 The full round moon cast the reflection of the window on 
 the white bed, and the ever restless moan of the sea became 
 more audible in the fixed stillness. The two faces, both 
 young and fair, yet so different in their expression, lay each 
 still en its pillow, their wide-open eyes gleaming out in the 
 shadow like mystical gems. Each was breathing softly, as 
 if afraid of disturbing the other. At last Sally gave an im- 
 patient movement. 
 
 " How lonesome the sea sounds in the night," she said. 
 "I wish it would ever be still." 
 
 " I like to hear it," said Mara. *' When I was in Boston, 
 for a while I thought I could not sleep, I used to miss it so 
 much." 
 
 There was another silence, which lasted so long that each 
 girl thought the other asleep, and moved softly, but at a 
 restless movement from Sally, Mara spoke again. 
 
 " Sally, you asleep ? " 
 
 " No, I thought you were." 
 
 " I wanted to ask you," said Mara, " did Moses ever say 
 anything to you about me? you know I told you how 
 much he said about you." 
 
 ** Yes ; he asked me once if you were engaged to Mr. 
 Adams." 
 
 " And what did you tell him ?" said Mara, with increasing 
 interest. 
 
 " Well, I only plagued him. I sometimes made him think 
 ^ou were, and sometimes that you were not ; and then again, 
 that there was a deep mystery in hand. But I praised 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. Sitf 
 
 jmd glorified Mr. Adams, and told him what a splendid 
 match it would be, and put on any little bits of embroidery 
 here and there that I could lay hands on. I used to make 
 him sulky and gloomy for a whole evening sometimes. In 
 tfeal way it was one of the best weapons I had." 
 
 " Sally, what does make you love to tease people so ? " 
 ud Mara. 
 
 u Why, you know the hymn says, 
 
 1 Let dogs delight to bark and bite, 
 
 For God hath made them so; 
 Let bears and lions growl and fight, 
 For 't is their nature too.' 
 
 That 's all the account I can give of it." 
 
 " But," said Mara, " I never can rest easy a moment 
 when I see I am making a person uncomfortable." 
 
 " Well, I don't tease anybody but the men. I don't tease 
 father or mother or you, but men are fair game ; they 
 are such thumby, blundering creatures, and we can confuse 
 them so." 
 
 " Take care, Sally, it 's playing with edge tools ; you may 
 Jose your heart some day in this kind of game." 
 
 " Never you fear," said Sally ; " but ar' n't you sleepy ? 
 let 's go to sleep." 
 
 Both girls turned their faces resolutely in opposite direo- 
 lions, and remained for an hour with their large eyes look- 
 ing out in 10 the moonlit chamber, liked the fixed stars over 
 Harpswell Bay. At last sleep drew softly down the fringy 
 curtains. 
 
814 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 IN the plain, simple regions we are describing, where 
 the sr a is the great avenue of active life, and the pine-forests 
 are the great source of wealth, ship-building is an engross- 
 ing interest, and there is no fete that calls forth the com- 
 munity like the launching of a vessel. 
 
 And no wonder ; for what is there belonging to this work- 
 a-day world of ours that has such a never-failing fund of 
 poetry and grace as a ship ? A ship is a beauty and a mys- 
 tery wherever we see it : its white wings touch the regions 
 of the unknown and the imaginative; they seem to us full 
 of the odors of quaint, strange, foreign shores, where life, 
 we fondly dream, moves in brighter currents than the 
 muddy, tranquil tides of every day. 
 
 Who that sees one bound outward, with her white breasts 
 swelling and heaving, as if with a reaching expectancy, 
 does not feel his own heart swell with a longing impulse to 
 go with her to the far-off shores ? Even at dingy, crowded 
 wharves, amid the stir and tumult of great cities, the coming 
 in of a ship is an event that never can lose its interest. But 
 on these romantic shores of Maine, where all is so wild and 
 still, and ihe blue sea lies embraced in the arms of dark, sol* 
 itary forests, the sudden incoming of a ship from a distant 
 voyage is a sort of romance. Who that has stood by the 
 blue waters of Middle Bay, engirdled as it fs by soft slopes 
 jf green farming land, interchanged here and there witfc 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 315 
 
 heavy billows of forest-trees, or rocky, pine-crowned prom- 
 ontories, has not felt that sense of seclusion and solitude 
 which is so delightful ? And then what a wonder ! There 
 comes a ship from China, drifting in like a white cloud, 
 the gallant creature ! how the waters hiss and foam before 
 her ; with what a great free, generous plash she throws 
 out her anchors, as if she said a cheerful " Well done!" to 
 some glorious work accomplished ! The very life and spirit 
 of strange romantic lands come with her; suggestions of 
 sandal-wood and spice breathe through the pine-woods ; she 
 is an oriental queen, with hands full of mystical gifts ; " all 
 her garments smell of myrrh and cassia, out of the ivory 
 palaces, whereby they have made her glad." No wonder 
 men have loved ships like birds, and that there have been 
 found brave, rough hearts that in fatal wrecks chose rather 
 to go down with their ocean love than to leave her in the 
 last throes of her death-agony. 
 
 A ship-building, a ship-sailing community has an uncon- 
 scious poetry ever underlying its existence. Exotic ideas 
 from foreign lands relieve the trite monotony of life ; the 
 ship-owner lives in communion with the whole world, and is 
 less likely to fall into the petty commonplaces that infest the 
 routine of inland life. 
 
 Never arose a clearer or lovelier October morning than 
 that which was to start the Ariel on her watery pilgrimage, 
 
 Moses had risen while the stars were yet twinkling over 
 heir own images in Middle Bay, to go down and see that 
 everything was right ; and in all the houses that we know in 
 the vicinity, everybody woke with the one thought of being 
 ready to go to the launching. 
 
 Mrs. Fennel and Mara were also up by starlight, busy 
 over the provisions for the ample cold collation that was to 
 
M6 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 be spreaJ in a barn adjoining the scene, the materiab 
 for which they were packing into baskets covered with nice 
 clean linen cloths, ready for the little sail-boat which lay 
 within a stone's throw of the door in the brightening dawn, 
 her white sails looking rosy in the advancing light. 
 
 It had been agreed that the Fennels and the Kittridges 
 should cross together in this boat with their contributions of 
 good cheer. 
 
 The Kittridges, too, had been astir with the dawn, intent 
 on their quota of the festive preparations, in which Dame 
 Kittridge's housewifely reputation was involved, for it had 
 been a disputed point in the neighborhood whether she or 
 Mrs. Pennel made the best doughnuts ; and of course, with 
 this fact before her mind, her efforts in this line had been all 
 but superhuman. 
 
 The Captain skipped in and out in high feather, occa- 
 sionally pinching Sally's cheek, and asking if she were going 
 as captain or mate upon the vessel after it was launched, for 
 which he got in return a fillip of his sleeve or a sly twitch 
 of his coat-tails, for Sally and her old father were on romp- 
 ing terms with each other from early childhood, a thing 
 which drew frequent lectures from the always exhorting 
 Mrs. Kittridge. 
 
 " Such levity ! " she said, as she saw Sally in full chase 
 after his retreating figure, in order to be revenged for 
 some sly allusions he had whispered in her ear. 
 
 " Sally Kittridge ! Sally Kittridge ! " she called, " come 
 back this minute. What are you about ? I should think 
 your father was old enough to know better." 
 
 " Lawful sakes, Polly, it kind o' renews one's youth to gel 
 a new ship done," said the Captain, skipping in at anothei 
 door. " Sort o' puts me in mind o' that /went out cap'en in 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 317 
 
 when I was jist beginning to court you, as somebody else is 
 courtin' our Sally here." 
 
 " Now, father," said Sally, threateningly, " what did I tell 
 you?" 
 
 " It *s really lemancholy" said the Captain, " to think how 
 it does distress gals to talk to 'em 'bout the fellers, wh^n 
 they a'n't thinkin' o' nothin' else all the time. They can't 
 even laugh without sayin' he-he-he ! " 
 
 " Now, father, you know I 've told you five hundred time* 
 that I don't care a cent for Moses Pennel, that he 's a 
 hateful creature," said Sally, looking very red and deter- 
 mined. 
 
 "Yes, yes," said the Captain, " I take that ar 's the reason 
 you *ve ben a-wearin' the ring he gin you and them rib- 
 bins you Ve got on your neck this blessed minute, and why 
 you 've giggled off to singin'-school, and Lord knows where 
 with him all summer, that ar 's clear now." 
 
 " But, father," said Sally, getting redder and more earnest, 
 " I don't care for him really, and I 've told him so. I keep 
 telling him so, and he will run after me." 
 
 " Haw ! haw ! " laughed the Captain ; " he will, will he ? 
 Jist so, Sally ; that ar 's jist the way your ma there talked 
 to me, and it kind o' 'couraged me along. I knew that gals 
 ulways has to be read back'ard jist like the writ in' in the 
 Barbary States." 
 
 " Captain Kittridge, will you stop such ridiculous talk ? ' 
 gaid his helpmeet; "and jist carry this 'ere basket cf cold 
 chicken down to the landin' agin the Fennels come round in 
 the boat ; and you must step spry, for there 's two more 
 baskets a-comin'." 
 
 The Captain shouldered the basket and walked toward 
 the sea with it, and Sally retired to her own little room 
 
318 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 to hold a farewell consultation with her mirror before she 
 went. 
 
 You will perhaps think from the conversation that you 
 heard the other night, that Sally now will cease all thought 
 of coquettish allurement in her acquaintance with Moses, 
 and cause him to see by an immediate and marked change 
 her entire indifference. Probably, as she stands thought- 
 fully before her mirror, she is meditating on the propriety 
 of laying aside the ribbons he gave her perhaps she will 
 alter that arrangement of her hair which is one that he him- 
 self particularly dictated as most becoming to the character 
 of her face. She opens a little drawer, which looks like a 
 flower-garden, all full of little knots of pink and blue and 
 red, and various fancies of the toilet, and looks into it re- 
 flectively. She looses the ribbon from her hair and chooses 
 another, but Moses gave her that too and said, she re- 
 members, that when she wore that " he should know she had 
 been thinking of him." Sally is Sally yet as full of sly 
 dashes of coquetry as a tulip is of streaks. 
 
 " There 's no reason I should make myself look like a 
 fright because I don't care for him," she says ; " besides, 
 after all that he has said, he ought to say more, he ought 
 at least to give me a chance to say no, he shall, too," said 
 the gypsy, winking at the bright, elfish face in the glass. 
 
 " Sally Kittridge, Sally Kittridge," called her mother, 
 " how long will you stay prinkin' ? come down this minute." 
 
 " Law now, mother," said the Captain*, " gals must priL k 
 afore such times ; it 's as natural as for hens to dress their 
 feathers afore a thunder-storm." 
 
 Sally at last appeared, all in a flutter of ribbons and 
 scarfs, whose bright, high colors assorted well with the ultra* 
 marine blue of her dress, and the vivid pomegranate hue of 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 319 
 
 her cheeks, The boat with its white sails flapping was bal- 
 ancing and courtesytng up and down on the waters, and in 
 the stern sat Mara ; her shining white straw hat trimmed 
 with blue ribbons set off her golden hair and pink shell 
 complexion. The dark, even pencilling of her eyebrows, 
 and the beauty of the brow above, the brown translucent 
 clearness of her thoughtful eyes, made her face striking ev^n 
 with its extreme delicacy of tone. She was unusually ani- 
 mated and excited, and her cheeks had a rich bloom of that 
 pure deep rose-color which flushes up in fair complexions 
 under excitement, and her eyes had a kind of intense ex- 
 pression, for which they had always been remarkable. All 
 the deep secluded yearning of repressed nature was looking 
 out of them, giving that pathos which every one has felt at 
 times in the silence of eyes. 
 
 " Now bless that ar gal," said the Captain, when he saw 
 her. " Our Sally here 's handsome, but she 's got the real 
 New-Jerusalem look, she has like them in the Revelations 
 that wears the fine linen, clean and white." 
 
 " Bless you, Captain Kittridge ! don't be a-makin' a fool 
 of yourself about no girl at your time o' life," said Mrs 
 Kittridge, speaking under her breath in a nipping, energetic 
 tone, for they were coming too near the boat to speak very 
 loud. 
 
 " Good-rnornin', Mis' Fennel ; we ve got a good day, and 
 a mercy it is so. 'Member when we launched the North 
 Star, that it rained guns all the mornin', and the water got 
 into th " baskets when we was a-fetchin' the things over, and 
 made a sight o' pester." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Fennel, with an air of placid satis- 
 faction, " everything seems to be going right about thii 
 vessel" 
 
520 THE PEARL OF ORR S ISLAND. 
 
 Mrs. Kittridge and Sally were soon accommodated with 
 Beats, and Zephaniah Fennel and the Captain began trim- 
 ming sail. The day was one of those perfect gems of days 
 which are to be found only in the jewel-casket of October 
 a day neither hot nor cold, with an air so clear that every 
 distant pine-tree top stood out in vivid separateness, and 
 every woody point and rocky island seemed cut out in crys* 
 talline clearness against the sky. There was so brisk a 
 breeze that the boat slanted quite to the water's edge on one 
 side, and Mara leaned over and pensively drew her little 
 pearly hand through the water, and thought of the days 
 when she and Moses took this sail together she in her 
 pink sun-bonnet, and he in his round straw hat, with a tin 
 dinner-pail between them ; and now, to-day the ship of 
 her childish dreams was to be launched. That launching 
 was something she regarded almost with superstitious awe. 
 The ship, built on one element, but designed to have its life 
 in another, seemed an image of the soul, framed and fash- 
 ioned with many a weary hammer-stroke in this life, but 
 finding its true element only when it sails out into the ocean 
 of eternity. Such was her thought as she looked down the 
 clear, translucent depths ; but would it have been of any use 
 to try to utter it to anybody ? to Sally Kittridge, for ex- 
 ample, who sat all in a cheerful rustle of bright ribbons 
 beside her, and who would have shown her white teeth all 
 round at such a suggestion, and said, " Now, Mara, who but 
 you would have thought of that ? " 
 
 But there are souls sent into this world who seem to have 
 Always mysterious affinities for the invisible and the unknowu 
 who see the face of everything beautiful through a ihin 
 veil of mystery and sadness. The Germans call this yearn 
 ing of spirit home-sickness the dim remembrances of 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 321 
 
 ipirit once affiliated to some higher sphere, of whose lost 
 brightness all things fair are the vague reminders. As Mara 
 looked pensively into the water, it seemed to her that every 
 incident of life came up out of its depths to meet her. Her 
 own face reflected in a wavering image, sometimes shaped 
 itself to her gaze in the likeness of the pale lady of her 
 childhood, who seemed to look up at her from the waters 
 with dark, mysterious eyes of tender longing. Once or 
 twice this dreamy effect grew so vivid that she shivered, and 
 drawing herself up from the water, tried to take an interest 
 in a very minute account which Mrs. Kittridge was giving 
 of the way to make corn-fritters which should taste exactly 
 like oysters. The closing direction about the quantity of 
 mace Mrs. Kittridge felt was too sacred for common ears, 
 and therefore whispered it into Mrs. Fennel's bonnet with a 
 knowing nod and a look from her black spectacles which 
 would not have been bad for a priestess of Dodona in giving 
 out an oracle. In this secret direction about the mace lay 
 the whole mystery of corn-oysters ; and who can say what 
 consequences might ensue from casting it in an unguarded 
 manner before the world ? 
 
 And now the boat which has rounded Harpswell Point is 
 skimming across to the head of Middle Bay, where the new 
 ship can distinctly be discerned standing upon her ways, 
 while moving clusters of people were walking up and down 
 her decks or lining the shore in the vicinity. All sorts of 
 gossiping and neighborly chit-chat is being interchanged in 
 the little world assembling there. 
 
 " I ha* n't seen the Fennels nor the Kittridges yet," said 
 &unt Ruey, whose little roly-polj figure was made illus- 
 trious in her best cinnamon-colored dyed silk. " There 'a 
 Moses Fennel a-goin' up that ar ladder. Dear r ,ne, what 
 U* 
 
522 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 a beautiful feller he is ! it 's a pity he a'n't a-goin' to marry 
 Mara Lincoln, after all." 
 
 u Ruey, do hush up," said Miss Roxy, frowning sternly 
 down from under the shadow of a preternatural black straw 
 bonnet, trimmed with huge bows of black ribbon, which head- 
 piece sat above her curls like a helmet. " Don't be a-gettin' 
 sentimental, Ruey, whatever else you get and talkin' like 
 Hiss Emily Sewell about match-makin' ; I can't stand it ; it 
 rises on my stomach, such talk does. As to that ar Moses 
 Pennel, folks a'n't so certain as they thinks what he '11 do. 
 Sally Kittridge may think he 's a-goin' to have her, because 
 he 's been a-foolin' round with her all summer, and Sally 
 Kittridge may jist find she 's mistaken, that 's all." 
 
 " Yes," said Miss Ruey, " I 'member when I was a gir 1 
 my old aunt, Jerushy Hopkins, used to be always a-dwellin 
 on this Scripture, and I 've been haviri' it brought up to me 
 this mornin' : * There are three things which are too won- 
 derful for me, yea, four, which I know not : the way of an 
 eagle in the air. the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way 
 of a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a maid. 
 She used to say it as a kind o' caution to me when she used 
 to think Abram Peters was bein' attentive to me. I 've 
 often reflected what a massy it was that ar never come to 
 pothin', for he 's a poor drunken critter now." 
 
 "Well, for my part," said Miss Roxy, fixing her eyes 
 critically on the boat that was just at the landing, " I should 
 jay the ways of a maid with a man was full as particular aa 
 any of the rest of 'em. Do look at Sally Kittridge now 
 There 's Tom Hiers a-helpin' her out of the boat ; and did 
 you see the look she gin Moses Pennel as she went by him, 
 Wai, Moses has got Mara on his arm anyhow ; there ' a gal 
 worth six-and-twenty of the other. Do see them ribbins and 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 323 
 
 icarfs, and the furbelows, and the way that ar Sally Kit 
 Iridge handles her eyes. She 's one that one feller a'n't 
 never enough for." 
 
 Mara's heart beat fast when the boat touched the shore, 
 and Moses and one or two other young men came to assist in 
 their landing. Never had he looked more beautiful thaa at 
 this moment, when flushed with excitement and satisfaction 
 he stood on the shore, his straw hat off, and his black curls 
 blowing in the sea-breeze. He looked at Sally with a look 
 of frank admiration as she stood there dropping her long 
 black lashes over her bright cheeks, and coquettishly looking 
 out from under them, but she stepped forward with a little 
 energy of movement, and took the offered hand of Tom 
 Hiers, who was gazing at her too with undisguised rapture, 
 and Moses, stepping into the boat, helped Mrs. Fennel on 
 shore, and then took Mara on his arm, looking her over as 
 he did so with a glance far less assured and direct than he 
 had given to Sally. 
 
 " You won't be afraid to climb the ladders, Mara ? " said 
 he. 
 
 " Not if you help me," she said. 
 
 Sally and Tom Hiers had already walked on toward the 
 vessel, she ostentatiously chatting and laughing with him. 
 Moses' brow clouded a little, and Mara noticed it. Moses 
 thought he did not care for Sally ; he knew that he little 
 hand that was now lying on his arm was the one he wanted, 
 and yet he felt vexed when he saw Sally walk off trium- 
 phantly with another. It was the dog-in-the-manger feeling 
 which possesses coquettes of both sexes. 
 
 Sally, on all former occasions, had snown a marked pref- 
 erence for him, and professed supremo indifference to Tom 
 Hiers. 
 
324 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 " It 'a all well enough," he said to himself, and he helped 
 Mara up the ladders with the greatest deference and tender- 
 ness. " This little woman is worth ten such girls as Sally, 
 if one only could get her heart. Here we are on our ship 
 Mara," he said, as he lifted her over the last barrier and set 
 her down on the deck. " Look over there, do you see Eagle 
 Island ? Did you dream when we used to go over there 
 and spend the day that you ever would be on my ship, as 
 you are to-day ? You won't be afraid, will you, \\ hen the 
 ship starts ? " 
 
 " I am too much of a sea-girl to fear on anything thai 
 sails in water," said Mara with enthusiasm. " What a splen- 
 did ship ! how nicely it all looks ! " 
 
 " Come, let me take you over it," said Moses, " and show 
 you my cabin." 
 
 Meanwhile the graceful little vessel was the subject of 
 various comments by the crowd of spectators below, and the 
 clatter of workmen's hammers busy in some of the last 
 preparations could yet be heard like a shower of hail- 
 Btones under her. 
 
 " I hope the ways are well greased," said old Captaip 
 Eldritch. " 'Member how the John Peters stuck in her 
 ways for want of their being greased ? " 
 
 " Don't you remember the Grand Turk, that keeled over 
 five minutes after she was launched ? " said the quavering 
 voice of Miss Ruey ; "there was jist such a company ol 
 thoughtless young creatures aboard as there is now." 
 
 " Well, there was n't nobody hurt," said Captain Kittridge. 
 u If Mis' Kittridge would let me, I 'd be glad to go aboard 
 this 'ere, and be launched with 'era." 
 
 " I tell the Cap'n he v s too old to be climbin' round and 
 mixin* with young folks' frolics," said Mrs. Kittridgo. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 325 
 
 " I suppose, Cap'n Fennel, you 've seen that the ways is 
 all right," said Captain Broad, returning to the old subject. 
 
 " Oh yes, it s all clone as welj as hands can do it," said 
 Zephaniah. " Moses has been here since starlight this 
 morning, and Moses has pretty good faculty about such 
 matters." 
 
 " Where 's Mr. Sewell and Miss Emily ? " said Misa 
 Ruey. " Oh, there they are over on that pile of rocks j 
 they get a pretty fair view there." 
 
 Mr. Sewell and Miss Emily were sitting under a cedar- 
 tree, with two or three others, on a projecting point whence 
 they could have a clear view of the launching. They were 
 so near that they could distinguish clearly the figures on 
 deck, and see Moses standing with his hat off, the wind 
 blowing his curls back, talking earnestly to the golden-haired 
 little woman on his arm. 
 
 " It is a launch into life for him," said Mr. Sewell, with 
 suppressed feeling. 
 
 " Yes, and he has Mara on his arm," said Miss Emily ; 
 " that 's as it should be. "Who is that that Sally Kittridge 
 is flirting with now? Oh, Tom Hiers. Well! he's good 
 enough for her. Why don't she take him ? " said Misa 
 Emily, in her zeal jogging her brother's elbow. 
 
 " I 'm sure, Emily, /don't know," said Mr. Sewell dryly 
 '' perhaps he won't be taken." 
 
 " Don't you think Moses looks handsome ? " said Misa 
 Emily. " I declare there is something quite romantic and 
 Spanish about him; don't you think so, Theophilus?" 
 
 "Yes, I think so," said her brother, quietly looking, ex 
 ternally, the meekest and most matter-of-fact of persons 
 but deep within him a voice sighed, " Poor Dolores, bo <rom 
 forted, your boy is beautiful and prosperous ! " 
 
826 THfc PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 " There, there ! " said Miss Emily, " I believe she is start- 
 ing." 
 
 All eyes of the crowd were now fixed on the ship ; the 
 sound of hammers stopped ; the workmen were seen flying 
 in every direction to gain good positions to see her go, 
 that sight so often seen on those shores, yet to which use 
 cannot dull the most insensible. 
 
 First came a slight, almost imperceptible, movement, then 
 B swift exultant rush, a dash into the hissing water, and the 
 air was rent with hurrahs as the beautiful ship went floating 
 far out on the blue seas, where her fairer life was hence- 
 forth to be. 
 
 Mara was leaning on Moses' arm at the instant the ship 
 began to move, but in the moment of the last dizzy rush she 
 felt his arm go tightly round her, holding her so close that 
 she could hear the beating of his heart. 
 
 " Hurrah ! " he said, letting go his hold the moment the 
 ship floated free, and swinging his hat in answer to the hats, 
 scarfs, and handkerchiefs, which fluttered from the crowd 
 on the shore. His eyes sparkled with a proud light as he 
 stretched himself upward, raising his head and throwing 
 back his shoulders with a triumphant movement. He 
 looked like a young sea-king just crowned ; and the fact is 
 the less wonderful, therefore, that Mara felt her heart throb 
 as she looked at him, and that a treacherous throb of the 
 same nature shook the breezy ribbons fluttering over the 
 careless heart of Sally. A handsome young sea-captain, 
 treading the deck of his own vessel, is, in his time and place, 
 a prince. 
 
 Moses looked haughtily across at Sally, and then passed 
 a half-laughing defiant flash of eyes between them. He 
 looked at Mara, who could certainly not have known wha. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 827 
 
 was in her eyes at the moment, an expression that made 
 his heart give a great throb, and wonder if he saw aright : 
 but it was gone a moment after, as all gathered around in a 
 knot exchanging congratulations on the fortunate way in 
 which the affair had gone off. Then came the launching 
 in boats to go back to the collation on shore, where were 
 high merry-makings for the space of one or two hours: 
 and thus was fulfilled the first part of Moses Fennel's Satur- 
 day afternoon prediction. 
 
328 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLANL*. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 M03E5 was now within a day or two of the time of hii 
 sailing, and yet the distance between him and Mara seemed 
 greater than ever. It is astonishing, when two people are 
 once started on a wrong understanding with each other, how 
 near they may live, how intimate they may be, how many 
 things they may have in common, how many words they 
 may speak, how closely they may seem to simulate intimacy, 
 confidence, friendship, while yet there lies a gulf between 
 them that neither crosses, a reserve that neither explores. 
 
 Like most shy girls, Mara became more shy the more 
 really she understood the nature of her own feelings. The 
 conversation with Sally had opened her eyes to the secret 
 of her own heart, and she had a guilty feeling as if what she 
 had discovered must be discovered by every one else. Yes, 
 it was clear she loved Moses in a way that made him, she 
 thought, more necessary to her happiness than she could 
 ever be to his, in a way that made it impossible to think 
 of him as wholly and for life devoted to another, without a 
 constant inner conflict. In vain had been all her little 
 stratagems practised upon herself the whole summer long, 
 to prove to herself that she was glad that the choice had 
 fallen upon Sally. She saw clearly enough now that she 
 was not glad, that there was no woman or girl living, 
 however dear, who could come for life between him and her 
 without casting on her heart the shuddering sorrow of a dim 
 eclipse. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 329 
 
 But now the truth was plain to herself, her whole force 
 was directed toward the keeping of her secret. "I may 
 Buffer," she thought, u but I will have strength not to be silly 
 and weak. Nobody shall know, nobody shall dream it, 
 and in the long, long time that he is away, I shall have 
 strength given me to overcome." 
 
 So Mara put on her most cheerful and matter-of-fact kind 
 of face, and plunged into the making of shirts and knitting 
 of stockings, and talked of the coming voyage with such a 
 total absence of any concern, that Moses began to think, 
 after all, ther ; could be no depth to her feelings, or that the 
 deeper ones were all absorbed by some one else. 
 
 "You really seem to enjoy the prospect of my going 
 away," said he to her, one morning, as she was energetically 
 busying herself with her preparations. 
 
 " Well, of course ; you know your career must begin. 
 You must make your fortune; and it is pleasant to think 
 how favorably everything is shaping for you." 
 
 " One likes, however, to be a little regretted," said Moses, 
 * a ,a tone of pique. 
 
 " A little regretted ! " Mara's heart beat at these words, 
 but her hypocrisy was well practised. She put down the 
 rebellious throb, and assuming a look of open, sisterly friend- 
 liness, said, quite naturally, " Why, we shall all miss you, of 
 course" 
 
 "Of course," said Moses, "one would be glad to be 
 missed some other way than of course" 
 
 " Oh, as to that, make yourself easy," said Mara. " We 
 shall all be dull enough when you are gone to content the 
 most exacting." Still she spoke, not stopping her stitching, 
 and raising her soft brown eyes with a frank, open look into 
 Moses' no tremor, not even ^f an eyelid. 
 
330 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " You men must have everything," she continued, gayly 
 " the enterprise, the adventure, the novelty, the pleasure of 
 feeling that you are something, and can do something in the 
 world ; and besides all this, you want the satisfaction of 
 knowing that we women are following in chains behind your 
 triumphal car ! " 
 
 There was a dash of bitterness in this, which was a rare 
 ingredient in Mara's conversation. 
 
 Moses took the word. "And you women sit easy at 
 home, sewing and singing, and forming romantic pictures of 
 our life as like its homely reality as romances generally are 
 to reality ; and while we are off in the hard struggle for 
 position and the means of life, you hold your hearts ready 
 for the first rich man that offers a fortune ready made." 
 
 "The first!" said Mara. " Oh, you naughty! sometimes 
 we try two or three." 
 
 "Well, then, I suppose this is from one of them," said 
 Moses, flapping down a letter from Boston, directed in a 
 masculine hand, which he had got at the post-office that 
 morning. 
 
 Now Mara knew that this letter was nothing in particular, 
 but she was taken by surprise, and her skin was delicate as 
 peach-blossom, and so she could not help a sudden blush, 
 which rose even to her golden hair, vexed as she was to feel 
 it coming. She put the letter quietly in her pocket, and for 
 a moment seemed too discomposed to answer. 
 
 " You do well to keep your own counsel," said Moses. 
 "No friend so near as one's self, is a good maxim. Ono 
 does not expect young girls to learn it so early, but it seems 
 they do." 
 
 " And why should n't they as well as young men ? " said 
 Mara. " Confidence begets confidence, they say." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 331 
 
 " I have no ambition to play confidant," said Moses ; " al 
 though as one who stands to you in the relation of older 
 brother and guardian, and just on the verge of a long voy 
 age, I might be supposed anxious to know." 
 
 " And / have no ambition to be confidant," said Mara, all 
 her spirit sparkling in her eyes ; " although when one stands 
 to you in the relation of an only sister, I might be suppose^ 
 perhaps to feel some interest to be in your confidence." 
 
 The words " older brother " and " only sister " grated on 
 the ears of both the combatants as a decisive sentence, 
 Mara never looked so pretty in her life, for the whole force 
 of her being was awake, glowing and watchful, to guard pas- 
 sage, door, and window of her soul, that no treacherous hint 
 might escape. Had he not just reminded her that he was 
 only an older brother ? and what would he think if he knew 
 the truth? and Moses thought the words only sister un- 
 equivocal declaration of how the matter stood in her view, 
 and so he rose, and saying, "I won't detain you longer from 
 your letter," took his hat and went out. 
 
 " Are you going down to Sally's ? " said Mara, coming to 
 the door and looking out after him. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Well, ask her to come home with you and spend the 
 evening. I have ever so many things to tell her." 
 
 " I will," said Moses, as he lounged away. 
 
 "The thing is clear enough," said Moses to himself. 
 u Why should I make a fool of myself any further ? What 
 possesses us men always to set our hearts precisely on what 
 Is n't to be had ? There 's Sally Kittridge likes me ; I can 
 lee that plainly enough, for all her mincing ; and why 
 eould n't I have had the sense to fall in love with her ? She 
 Hill make a splendid, showy woman. She has talent and 
 
832 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 tact eiiougL to rise to any position I may rise to, let me ris^ 
 as high as I will. She will always have skill and ei'iergy in 
 the conduct of life; and when all the froth and foam of 
 youth has subsided, she will make a noble woman. Why 5 
 then, do I cling to this fancy ? I feel that this little flossy 
 cloud, this delicate, quiet little puff of thistle-down, on which 
 I have set my heart, is the only thing for me, and that with- 
 out her my life will always be incomplete. I remember all 
 oui early life. It was she who sought me, and ran after 
 me, and where has all that love gone to ? Gone to this 
 fellow ; that 's plain enough. When a girl like her is so 
 comfortably cool and easy, it's because her heart is off 
 somewhere else." 
 
 This conversation took place about four o'clock in as fino 
 an October afternoon as you could wish to see. The sun, 
 sloping westward, turned to gold the thousand blue scales 
 of the ever-heaving sea, and soft, pine-scented winds were 
 breathing everywhere through the forests, waving the long, 
 swaying films of heavy moss, and twinkling the leaves of the 
 silver birches that fluttered through the leafy gloom. The 
 tnoon, already in the sky, gave promise of a fine moonlight 
 night ; and the wild and lonely stillness of the island, and 
 the thoughts of leaving in a few days, all conspired to foster 
 the restless excitement in our hero's mind into a kind of 
 romantic unrest. 
 
 Now, in some such states, a man disappointed in one 
 woman will turn to another, because, in a certain way and 
 measure, her presence stills the craving and fills the void 
 It is a sort of supposititious courtship, a saying to one 
 woman, who is sympathetic and receptive, the words of 
 longing and love that another will not receive. To be sure 
 it is a game unworthy of any true man. a piece of sheer 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 833 
 
 reckless, inconsiderate selfishness. But men do it, as they do 
 many other unworthy things, from the mere promptings of 
 present impulse, and let consequences take care of themselves. 
 
 Moses met Sally that afternoon in just the frame to play 
 the lover in this hypothetical, supposititious way, with words 
 a\id looks and tones that came from feelings given to an- 
 other. And as to Sally? 
 
 Well, for once, Greek met Greek ; for although Sally, as 
 we showed her, was a girl of generous impulses, she was yet 
 in no danger of immediate translation on account of super- 
 human goodness. In short, Sally had made up her mind 
 that Moses should give her a chance to say that precious 
 and golden No, which should enable her to count him as 
 one of her captives, and then he might go where he liked 
 for all her. 
 
 So said the wicked elf, as she looked into her own great 
 eyes in the little square of mirror shaded by a misty as- 
 paragus bush ; and to this end there were various braidings 
 and adorn ings of the lustrous black hair, and coquettish ear- 
 rings were mounted that hung glancing and twinkling just 
 by the smooth outline of her glowing cheek, and then 
 Sally looked at herself in a friendly way of approbation, and 
 nodded at the bright dimpled shadow with a look of secret 
 understanding. The real Sally and the Sally of the looking- 
 glass were on admirable terms with each other, and both of 
 one mind about the plan of campaign against the common 
 enemy. Sally thought of him as he stood kingly and tri- 
 umphant on the deck of his vessel, his great black eyes 
 flashing confident glances into hers, and she felt a rebellious 
 rustle of all her plumage. * No, sir," she said to herself, 
 "you don't do it. You shall never find me among your 
 slaves," " that you know of," added a doubtful voice within 
 
834 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 her. "Never to your knowledge" she said, as she turned 
 away. " I wonder if he will come here this evening," she 
 said, as she began to work upon a pillow-case, one of a 
 set which Mrs. Kittridge had confided to her nimble fingers. 
 The seam was long, straight, and monotonous, and Sally was 
 restless and fidgety ; her thread would catch in knots, and 
 when she tried to loosen it, would break, and the needle 
 had to be threaded over. Somehow the work was terribly irk- 
 some to her, and the house looked so still and dim and lone- 
 some, and the tick-tock of the kitchen-clock was insufferable, 
 and Sally let her work fall in her lap and looked out of the 
 open window, far to the open ocean, where a fresh breeze 
 was blowing toward her, and her eyes grew deep and dreamy 
 following the gliding ship sails. Sally was getting romantic. 
 Had she been reading novels ? Novels ! What can a pretty 
 woman find in a novel equal to the romance that is all the 
 while weaving and unweaving about her, and of which no 
 human foresight can tell her the catastrophe? It is novels 
 that give false views of life. Is there not an eternal novel, 
 with all these false, cheating views, written in the breast of 
 every beautiful and attractive girl whose witcheries make 
 every man that comes near her talk like a fool ? Like a 
 sovereign princess, she never hears the truth, unless it be 
 from the one manly man in a thousand, who understands 
 both himself and her. From all the rest she hears only 
 flatteries more or less ingenious, according to the ability of 
 the framer. Compare, for instance, what Tom Brown says 
 to little Seraphina at the party to-night, with what Tom 
 Brown sober says to sober sister Maria about her to-morrow. 
 Tom remembers that he was a fool last night, and knows 
 what he thinks and always has thought to-day ; but pretty 
 Seraphina thinks he adores her, so that no matter what slit 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 333 
 
 he will never see a flaw, she is sure of that, poor 
 little puss ! She does not know that philosophic Tom looks 
 at her as he does at a glass of champagne, or a dose of ex- 
 hilarating gas, and calculates how much it will do for him 
 to take of the stimulus without interfering with his serious 
 and settled plans of life, which, of course, he does n't mean 
 to give up for her. The one-thousand-and- first man in 
 creation is he that can feel the fascination but will not Hatter, 
 and that tries to tell to the little tyrant the rare word of 
 truth that may save her; he is, as we say, the one-thou- 
 sand-and-first. Well, as Sally sat with her great dark eyes 
 dreamily following the ship, she mentally thought over all the 
 compliments Moses had paid her, expressed or understood, 
 and those of all her other admirers, who had built up a sort 
 of cloud-world around her, so that her little feet never rested 
 on the soil of reality. Sally was shrewd and keen, and had 
 a native mother-wit in the discernment of spirits, that made 
 her feel that somehow this was all false coin ; but still she 
 counted it over, and it looked so pretty and bright that she 
 sighed to think it was not real. 
 
 " If it only had been," she thought ; " if there were only 
 any truth to the creature ; he is so handsome, it 's a pity. 
 But I do believe in his secret heart he is in love with Mara ; 
 lie is in love with some one, I know. I have seen looks that 
 must come from something real ; but they were not for me. 
 I have a kind of power over him, though," she said, resuming 
 her old wicked look, " and I '11 puzzle him a little, and tor- 
 ment him. He shall find his match in me," and Sally nodded 
 to a cat-bird that sat perched on a pine-tree, as if she had a 
 secret understanding with him, and the cat-bird went off into 
 a perfect roulade of imitations of all that was going on in the 
 late ^ird-operas of the season. 
 
3 6 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Sally was roused from her revery by a spray of golden- 
 rod that was thrown into her lap by an invisible hand, and 
 Aloses soon appeared at the window. 
 
 " There 's a plume that would be becoming to your hair," 
 he said ; " stay, let me arrange it." 
 
 " No, no ; you '11 tumble my hair, what can you know 
 of such things ? " 
 
 Moses held the spray aloft, and leaned toward her with a 
 sort of quiet, determined insistance. 
 
 " By your leave, fair lady," he said, wreathing it in her 
 hair, and then drawing back a little, he looked at her with 
 so much admiration that Sally felt herself blush. 
 
 " Come, now, I dare say you *ve made a fright of me," 
 she said, rising and instinctively turning to the looking-glass ; 
 but she had too much coquetry not to see how admirably the 
 golden plume suited her black hair, and the brilliant eyes 
 and cheeks ; she turned to Moses again, and courtesied say- 
 ing " thank you, sir," dropping her eyelashes with a mock 
 humility. 
 
 " Come, now," said Moses ; " I am sent after you to come 
 and spend the evening ; let 's walk along the sea-shore, and 
 get there by degrees." 
 
 And so they set out ; but the path was circuitous, for 
 Moses was always stopping, now at this point and now at 
 that, and enacting some of those thousand little by-plays 
 which a man can get up with a pretty woman. They 
 searched for smooth pebbles where the waves had left 
 them, many-colored, pink and crimson and yellow ar.d 
 bi own, all smooth and rounded by the eternal tossings of the 
 old sea that had made playthings of them for centuries, and 
 with every pebble given and taken were things said whick 
 should ha*, e meant more and more, had the play been ear 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 387 
 
 nest. Had Moses any idea of offering himself to Sally ? 
 No ; but lie was in one of those fluctuating, unresisting 
 moods of mind in which he was willing to lie like a chip 
 on the tide of present emotion, and let it rise and fall and 
 dash him when it liked ; and Sally never had seemed more 
 beautiful and attractive to him than that afternoon, because 
 there was a shade of reality and depth about her that he 
 had never seen before. 
 
 " Come on, and let me show you my hermitage," said 
 Moses, guiding her along the slippery projecting rocks, all 
 covered with yellow tresses of sea-weed. Sally often slipped 
 on this treacherous footing, and Moses was obliged to hold 
 her up, and instinctively he threw a meaning into his manner 
 BO much more than ever he had before, that by the time they 
 had gained the little cove both were really agitated and ex- 
 cited. He felt that temporary delirium which is often the 
 mesmeric effect of a strong womanly presence, and she felt 
 that agitation which every woman must when a determined 
 hand is striking on the great vital chord of her being. When 
 they had stepped round the last point of rock they found 
 themselves driven by the advancing tide up into the little 
 ionely grotto, and there they were with no look-out but 
 the wide blue sea, all spread out in rose and gold under the 
 twilight skies, with a silver moon looking down upon them. 
 
 " Sally," said Moses, in a low, earnest whisper, " you love 
 ine, do you not ? " and he tried to pass his arm around 
 her. 
 
 She turned and flashed at him a look of mingled terror 
 Mid defiance, and struck out her hands at him then im- 
 petuously turning away and retreating to the other end of 
 he grotto, she sat down on a rock and began to cry. 
 
 Moses came toward her, and kneeling, tried to take hei 
 15 
 
538 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 hand. She raised her head angrily, and again repulsed 
 him. 
 
 "Go!" she said. "What right had you to say that? 
 What right had you even to think it?" 
 
 " Sally, you do love me. It cannot but be. You are a 
 woman ; you could not have been with me as we have and 
 not feel more than friendship." 
 
 ** Oh, you men ! your conceit passes understanding,** 
 gaid Sally. " You think we are born to be your bond 
 slaves, but for once you are mistaken, sir. I don't love 
 you ; and what 's more, you don't love me, you know you 
 don't ; you know that you love somebody else. You love 
 Mara, you know you do ; there 's no truth in you," she 
 said, rising indignantly. 
 
 Moses felt himself color. There was an embarrassed 
 pause, and then he answered, 
 
 " Sally, why should I love Mara ? Her heart is all given 
 to another, you yourself know it." 
 
 " I don't know it either," said Sally ; " I know it is n't so." 
 
 " But you gave me to understand so." 
 
 " Well, sir, you put prying questions about what you 
 ought to have asked her, and so what was I to do ? Be- 
 sides, I did want to show you how much better Mara 
 could do than to take you ; besides, I did n't know till late- 
 ly. I never thought she could care much for any man 
 uiore than I could." 
 
 " And you think she loves me ? " said Moses, eagerly, a 
 flash of joy illuminating his face ; " do you, really ? " 
 
 " There you are," said Sally ; " it 's a shame I have let 
 you know ! Yes, Moses Fennel, she loves you like an 
 angel, as none of you men deserve to be loved, as yoa 
 in particular don't." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 339 
 
 Moses sat .down on a point of rock, and looked on the 
 ground discountenanced. Sally stood up glowing and tri- 
 umphant, as if she had her foot on the neck of her oppressor 
 and meant to make the most of it. 
 
 " Now what do you think of yourself for all this summer's 
 work ? for what you have just said, asking me if I did n't 
 love you ? Supposing, now, I had done as other girls would, 
 played the fool and blushed, and said yes ? Why, to-mor- 
 row you would have been thinking how to be rid of me ! I 
 shall save you all that trouble, sir." 
 
 " Sally, I own I have been acting like a fool," said Moses, 
 humbly. 
 
 " You have done more than that, you have acted wick- 
 edly," said Sally. 
 
 " And am I the only one to blame ? " said Moses, lifting 
 his head with a show of resistance. 
 
 " Listen, sir ! " said Sally, energetically ; " I have played 
 the fool and acted wrong too, but there is just this difference 
 between you and me : you had nothing to lose and I a great 
 deal ; your heart, such as it was, was safely disposed of. 
 But supposing you had won mine, what would you have 
 ibne with it? That was the last thing you considered." 
 
 " Go on, Sally, don't spare ; I 'm a vile dog, unworthy of 
 either of you," said Moses. 
 
 Sally looked down on her handsome penitent with some 
 relenting as he sat quite dejected, his strong arms drooping, 
 and his long eyelashes cast down. 
 
 " I '11 be friends with you," she said, " because, after all 
 I 'm not so very much better than you. We have both dont 
 tvrong, and made dear Mara very unhappy. But after all, 1 
 was not so much to blame as you ; because, if there haw) 
 been any reality in your love, I could have paid it honestly. 
 
340 THE PEARL OF ORll'S ISLAND. 
 
 I had a heart to give, I have it now, and. hope long to 
 keep it," said Sally. 
 
 " Sally, you are a right noble girl. I never knew what 
 you were till now," said Moses, looking at her with admira- 
 tion. 
 
 " It 's the first time for all these six months that we have 
 either of us spoken a word of truth or sense to each other 
 I never did anything but trifle with you, and you the same. 
 Now we 've come to some plain dry land, we may walk on 
 and be friends. So now help me up these rocks, and I will 
 go home." 
 
 " And you '11 not come home with me ? " 
 
 " Of course not. I think you may now go home and have 
 one talk with Mara without witnesses." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 341 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 MOSES walked slowly home from his interview with Sail} 
 in a sort of maze of confused thought. In general, men un- 
 derstand women only from the outside, and judge them with 
 about as much real comprehension as an eagle might judge 
 a canary-bird. The difficulty of real understanding intensi- 
 fies in proportion as the man is distinctively manly, and the 
 woman womanly. There are men with a large infusion of 
 the feminine element in their composition, who read the 
 female nature with more understanding than commonly falls 
 to the lot of men ; but in general, when a man passes be- 
 yond the mere outside artifices and unrealities which lie 
 between the two sexes, and really touches his finger to any 
 vital chord in the heart of a fair neighbor, he is astonished 
 tt the quality of the vibration. 
 
 " I could not have dreamed there was so much in her," 
 thought Moses, as he turned away from Sally Kittridge. He 
 felt humbled as well as astonished by the moral lecture 
 which this frisky elf with whom he had all summer been 
 amusing himself, preached to him from the depths of a real 
 woman's heart. What she said of Mara's loving him filled 
 his eyes with remorseful tears, and for the moment he 
 asked himself whether this restless, jealous, exacting desire 
 which he felt to appropriate her wncle life and heart to him- 
 self, were as really worthy of the name of love as the gener- 
 ous self-devotion with which she had, all her life, made all 
 his interests her own. 
 
842 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND 
 
 Was he to go to her now and tell her that he loved her, 
 and therefore he had teased and vexed her, therefore he 
 had seemed to prefer another before her, therefore he 
 had practised and experimented upon her nature ? A sus- 
 picion rather stole upon him that love, which expresses itself 
 principally in making exactions and giving pain is not ex- 
 actly worthy of the name. And yet he had been secretly 
 angry with her all summer for being the very reverse of 
 this ; for her apparent cheerful willingness to see him happj 
 with another ; for the absence of all signs of jealousy, all 
 desire of exclusive appropriation. It showed, he said to 
 himself, that there was no love ; and now when it dawned 
 on him that this might be the very heroism of self-devotion, 
 he asked himself which was best worthy to be called love. 
 
 "She did love him, then!" The thought blazed up 
 through the smouldering embers of thought in his heart like 
 a tongue of flame. She loved him ! He felt a sort of tri- 
 umph in it, for he was sure Sally must know, they were so 
 intimate. Well, he would go to her, and tell her all, confess 
 all his sins, and be forgiven. 
 
 When he came back to the house all was still evening. 
 The moon, which was playing brightly on the distant -sea, 
 left one side of the brown house in shadow. Moses saw a 
 light gleaming behind the curtain in the little room on the 
 lower floor, which had been his peculiar sanctum during the 
 summer past. He had made a sort of library of it, keeping 
 there his books and papers. Upon the white curtain flitted, 
 from time to time, a delicate, busy shadow ; now it rose and 
 now it stooped, and then it rose again grew dim and van- 
 ished, and tlren came out again. His heart beat quick. 
 
 Mara was in his room, busy, as she always had been le- 
 fore his departures l in cares for him. How many things had 
 
THE PEARL OF GR.rS ISLAND. 343 
 
 she made for him, and done and arranged for him all his life 
 long! things which he had taken as much as a matter of 
 course as the shining of that moon. His thoughts went 
 back to the times of his first going to sea, he a rough, 
 chaotic boy, sensitive and surly, and she the ever thoughtful 
 good angel of a little girl, whose loving-kindness he lad felt 
 free to use and to abuse. He remembered that he made ne* 
 cry there when he should have spoken lovingly and grate 
 fully to her, and that the words of acknowledgment that 
 ought to have been spoken, never had been said, remained 
 unsaid to that hour. He stooped low, and came quite close 
 to the muslin curtain. All was bright in the room, and 
 shadowy without ; he could see her movements as through a 
 thin white haze. She was packing his sea-chest ; his things 
 were lying about her, folded or rolled nicely. Now he saw 
 her on her knees writing something with a pencil in a book, 
 and then she enveloped it very carefully in silk paper, and 
 tied it trimly, and hid it away at the bottom of the chest. 
 Then she remained a moment kneeling at the chest, her head 
 resting in her hands. A sort of strange sacred feeling came 
 over him as he heard a low murmur, and knew that she 
 felt a Presence that he never felt or acknowledged. He 
 felt somehow that he was doing her a wrong thus to be pry- 
 ing upon moments when she thought herself alone with Cod ; 
 a sort of vague remorse filled him ; he felt as if she were 
 too good for him. He turned away, and entering the front- 
 door of the house, stepped noiselessly along and lifted the 
 latcb of the door. He heard a rustle as of one rising hastily 
 as h(, opened it and stood before Mara. He had made up 
 uis mind what to say ; Out when she stood there- before him, 
 with her surprised, inquiring eyes, he felt confused. 
 " What, home so soon ? " she said. 
 
344 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " You did not expect me, then ? " 
 
 " Of course not, not for these two houis ; so," she said, 
 looking about, " I found some mischief to do among your 
 things. If you had waited as long as I expected, they 
 would all have been quite right again, and you would never 
 have known." 
 
 Moses sat down and drew her toward him, as if he were 
 going to say something, and then stopped and began confus- 
 edly playing with her work-box. 
 
 " Now, please don't," said she, archly. " You know what 
 a little old maid I am about my things ! " 
 
 " Mara," said Moses, '* people have asked you to marry 
 them, have there not ? " 
 
 " People asked me to marry them ! " said Mara. " I hope 
 not. What an odd question ! " 
 
 " You know what I mean," said Moses ; " you have had 
 offers of marriage from Mr. Adams, for example." 
 
 "And what if I have?" 
 
 " You did not accept him, Mara ? " said Moses. 
 
 No, I did not." 
 
 " And yet he was a fine man, I am told, and well fitted to 
 make you happy." 
 
 " I believe he was," said Mara, quietly. 
 
 " And why were you so foolish ? " 
 
 Mara was fretted at this question. She supposed Moses 
 had come to tell her of his engagement to Sally, and that 
 this was a kind of preface, and she answered, 
 
 u I don't know why you call it foolish. I was a true fi iend 
 to Mr. Adams. I saw intellectually that he might have the 
 power of making any reasonable woman happy. I thini 
 now that the woman will be fortunate who becomes his wife 
 but I did not wish to marry him." 
 
THE PEARL OF OKR'S ISLAND. 345 
 
 * Is there anybody you prefer to him, Mara ? " said Moses. 
 
 She started up with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes. 
 
 " You have no right to ask me that, though you are my 
 brother." 
 
 a l am not your brother, Mara," said Moses, rising and 
 going toward her, " and that is why I ask you. I feel I 
 have a right to ask you." 
 
 " I do not understand you," she said, faintly. 
 
 " I can speak plainer, then. I wish to put in my poor 
 venture. I love you, Mara not as a brother. I wish 
 you to be my wife, if you will." 
 
 While Moses was saying these words, Mara felt a sort of 
 whirling in her head, and it grew dark before her eyes ; but 
 she had a strong, firm will, and she mastered herself and 
 answered, after a moment, in a quiet, sorrowful tone, " How 
 can I believe this, Moses ? If it is true, why have you 
 done as you have this summer?" 
 
 " Because I was a fool, Mara, because I was jealous of 
 Mr. Adams, because I somehow hoped, after all, that you 
 either loved me or that I might make you think more of me 
 through jealousy of another. They say that love always is 
 shown by jealousy." 
 
 " Not true love, I should think," said Mara. " How could 
 you do so ? it was cruel to her, cruel to me." 
 
 " I admit it, anything, everything you can say. I have 
 acted like a fool and a knave, if you will; but after all, 
 Mara, I do love you. I know I am not woithy of you 
 never was never can be ; you are in all things a true 
 poble woman, and I have been unmanly." 
 
 It is not to be supposed that all this was spoken without 
 Accompaniments of looks, movements, and expressions of 
 face such as we cannot give, but sucn as doubled their power 
 15* 
 
346 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 to the parties concerned ; and the " I love you " had its usual 
 conclusive force as argument, apology, promise, covering 
 like charity, a multitude of sins. 
 
 Half an hour after, you might have seen a youth and a 
 maiden coming together out of the door of the brown house, 
 and walking arm in arm toward the sea-beach. 
 
 It was one of those wonderfully clear moonlight evenings, 
 when the ocean, like a great reflecting mirror, seems to 
 double the brightness of the sky, and its vast expanse 
 lay all around them in its stillness, like an eternity of wave 
 less peace. Mara remembered that time in her girlhood 
 when she had followed Moses into the woods on just such a 
 night, how she had sat there under the shadows of the 
 trees, and looked over to Harpswell and noticed the white 
 houses and the meeting-house, all so bright and clear in the 
 moonlight, and then off again on the other side of the island 
 where silent ships were coming and going in the mysterious 
 stillness. They were talking together now with that outflow- 
 ing fulness which comes when the seal of some great re- 
 serve has just been broken, going back over their lives 
 from day to day, bringing up incidents of childhood, and 
 turning them gleefully like two children. 
 
 And then Moses had all the story of his life to relate, and 
 to tell Mara all he had learned of his mother, going over 
 with all the narrative contained in Mr. Sewell's letter. 
 
 " You see, Mara, that it was intended that you should be 
 my fate," he ended ; " so the winds and waves took me up 
 and carried me to the lonely island where the magic princes} 
 dwelt." 
 
 ft You are Prince Ferdinand," said Mara. 
 
 " And you are Miranda," said he. 
 
 "Ah!" she said with fervor, "how plainly we can se 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 347 
 
 that our heavenly Father has been guiding our way ! How 
 good he is, and how we must try to live for Him, both 
 of us." 
 
 A sort of cloud pa-sed over Moses' brow. He looked 
 embarrassed, and there was a pause between them, and then 
 he turned the conversation. 
 
 Mara felt pained ; it was like a sudden discord ; such 
 thoughts and feelings were the very breath of her life r hc 
 could not speak in perfect confidence and unreserve, as she 
 then spoke, without uttering them ; and her finely organized 
 nature felt a sort of electric consciousness of repulsion and 
 dissent. 
 
 She grew abstracted, and they walked on in silence. 
 
 " I see now, Mara, I have pained you," said Moses, *' but 
 there are a class of feelings that you have that I have not 
 and cannot have. No, I cannot feign anything. I can un- 
 derstand what religion is in you, I can admire its results. 
 I can be happy, if it gives you any comfort ; but people are 
 differently constituted. I never can feel as you do." 
 
 " Oh, don*t say never" said Mara, with an intensity that 
 nearly startled him ; " it has been the one prayer, the on 
 hope, of my life, that you might have these comforts, this 
 peace." 
 
 "I need no comfort or peace except what I shall find in 
 you," said Moses, drawing her to himself, and looking admir- 
 ingly at her ; "but pray for me still. I always thought that 
 my wife must be one of the sort of women who pray." 
 
 " And why ? " said Mara, in surprise. 
 
 " Because I need to be loved a great deal, and it is only 
 that kind who pray who know how to love really. If you 
 had not prayed for me all this time, you never would have 
 loved me in spite of all my faults, as you did, and do, and 
 
348 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 will, as I know you will," he said, folding her in his arms 
 and in his secret heart he said, " Some of this intensity, this 
 devotion, which went upward to heaven, will be mine one 
 day. She will worship me." 
 
 " The fact is, Mara," he said, " I am a child of this world. 
 I have no sympathy with things not seen. You are a half- 
 spiritual creature, a child of air ; and but for the great 
 woman's heart in you, I should feel that you were something 
 uncanny and unnatural. I am selfish, I know ; I frankly 
 admit, I never disguised it ; but I love your religion because 
 it makes you love me. It is an incident to that loving, trust- 
 ing nature which makes you all and wholly mine, as I want 
 you to be. I want you all and wholly; every thought, 
 every feeling, the whole strength of your being. I don't 
 care if I say it : I would not wish to be second in your 
 heart even to God himself! " 
 
 " Oh, Moses ! " said Mara, almost starting away from him, 
 " such words are dreadful ; they will surely bring evil upon 
 us." 
 
 " I only breathed out my nature as you did yours. Why 
 should you love an unseen and distant Being more than you 
 do one whom you can feel and see, who holds you in his 
 arms, whose heart beats like your own ? M 
 
 " Moses," said Mara, stopping and looking at him in tht 
 clear moonlight, " God has always been to me not so mucb 
 like a father as like a dear and tender mother. Perhaps it 
 was because I was a poor orphan, and my father and mother 
 iied at my birth, that He has been so loving to me. I never 
 remember the time when I did not ftel his presence in my 
 joys and my sorrows. I never had a thought of joy and 
 sorrow that I could not say to Him. I never woke in the 
 night that I did not feel that He was loving and watching 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 349 
 
 me, and that I loved Him in return. Oh, how many, many 
 things I have said to Him about you ! My heart would have 
 broken years ago, had it not been for Him ; because, though 
 you did not know it, you often seemed unkind ; yon hurt me 
 very often when you did not mean to. His love is so much 
 a part of my life that I cannot conceive of life without it 
 It is the very air I breathe." 
 
 Moses stood still a moment, for Mara spoke with a fer- 
 vor that affected him ; then he drew her to his heart, and 
 Baid, 
 
 " Oh, what could ever make you love me ? " 
 
 " He sent you and gave you to me," she answered, " to be 
 mine in time and eternity." 
 
 The words were spoken in a kind of enthusiasm so differ- 
 ent from the usual reserve of Mara, that they seemed like a 
 prophecy. That night, for the first time in her life, had she 
 broken the reserve which was her very nature, and spoken 
 of that which was the intimate and hidden history of her 
 soul. 
 
350 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLANn 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 u AND so," said Mrs. Captain Badger to Miss Roxy Tooth- 
 acre, " it seems that Moses Fennel a'n't going to have Sally 
 Kittridge after all, he 's engaged to Mara Lincoln." 
 
 " More shame for him," said Miss Roxy, with a frown 
 that made her mohair curls look really tremendous. 
 
 Miss Roxy and Mrs. Badger were the advance party at 
 a quilting, to be holden at the house of Mr. Sewell, and had 
 come at one o'clock to do the marking upon the quilt, which 
 was to be filled up by the busy fingers of all the women in 
 the parish. Said quilt was to have a bordering of a pattern 
 commonly denominated in those parts clam-shell, and this 
 Miss Roxy was diligently marking with indigo. 
 
 " What makes you say so, now ? " said Mrs. Badger, a 
 fat, comfortable, motherly matron, who always patronized 
 the last matrimonial venture that put forth among the young 
 people. 
 
 " "What business had he to flirt and gallivant all summer 
 with Sally Kittridge, and make everybody think he was 
 going to have her, and then turn round to Mara Lincoln at 
 the last minute ? I wish I 'd been in Mara's place." 
 
 In Miss Roxy's martial enthusiasm, she gave a sudden 
 poke to her frisette, giving to it a diagonal bristle which 
 extremely increased its usually severe expression ; and any 
 one contemplating her at the moment would have thought 
 that for Moses Fennel or any other young man to come witt 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 351 
 
 tender propositions in that direction, would have been in 
 deed a venturesome enterprise. 
 
 " I tell you what 't is, Mis' Badger," she said, " I 've 
 known Mara since she was born, I may say I fetched 
 her up myself, for if I had n't trotted and tended her them 
 first four weeks of her life, Mis' Fennel 'd never have got 
 her through ; and I 've watched her every year since ; and 
 havin' Moses Fennel is the only silly thing I ever knew her 
 to do ; but you never can tell what a girl will do when it 
 comes to marryin', never ! " 
 
 " But he 's a real stirrin', likely young man, and captain 
 of a fine ship," said Mrs. Badger. 
 
 " Don't care if he 's captain of twenty ships," said Miss 
 Roxy, obdurately ; " he a'n't a professor of religion, and 
 I believe he 's an infidel, and she 's one of the Lord's 
 people." 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Badger, " you know the unbelievin* 
 husband shall be sanctified by the believin' wife." 
 
 " Much sanctifyin' he 11 get," said Miss Roxy, contemp 
 tuously. u I don't believe he loves her any more than fancy ; 
 she 's the last plaything, and when he 's got her, he '11 be 
 tired of her, as he always was with anything he got ever 
 since. I tell you, Moses Fennel is all for pride and ambi- 
 tion and the world ; and his wife, when he gets used to her 
 '11 be only a circumstance, that 's all." 
 
 " Come, now, Miss Roxy," said Miss Emily, who in her 
 best silk and smoothly-brushed hair had just come in, " we 
 must not let you talk so. Moses Fennel has had long talka 
 with brother, and he thinks him in a very hopeful way, 
 and we are all delight ad; and as to Mara, she is as fresh 
 tnd happy as a little rose." 
 
 " So I tell Roxy," said Miss Ruy, who had been absent 
 
352 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 from the room to hold private consultations with Miss Emily 
 concerning the biscuits and sponge-cake for tea, and who 
 now sat down to the quilt and began to unroll a capacious 
 and very limp calico thread-case ; and placing her specta- 
 cles awry on her little pug nose, she began a series of in- 
 genious dodges with her thread, designed to hit the eye of 
 her needle. 
 
 " The old folks," she continued, " are e'en a'most tickled 
 tc pieces, 'cause they think it '11 jist be the salvation of 
 him to get Mara." 
 
 " I a'n't one of the sort that wants to be a-usin' up girls 
 for the salvation of fellers," said Miss Roxy, severely 
 " Ever since he nearly like to have got her eat up by 
 sharks, by giggiting her off in the boat out to sea when she 
 wa'n't more'n three years old, I always have thought he 
 was a misfortin' in that family, and I think so now." 
 
 Here broke in Mrs. Eaton, a thrifty energetic widow of 
 a deceased sea-captain, who had been left with a tidy little 
 fortune which commanded the respect of the neighborhood. 
 Mrs. Eaton had entered silently during the discussion, but 
 of course had come, as every other woman had that after- 
 noon, with views to be expressed upon the subject. 
 
 " For my part," she said, as she stuck a decisive needle 
 into the first clam-shell pattern, " / a'n't so sure that all 
 the advantage in this match is on Moses Pennel's part. 
 Mara Lincoln is a good little thing, but she a'n't fitted to 
 help a man along, she '11 always be wantin' somebody to 
 help her. Why, I 'member goin' a voyage with Cap'n 
 Eaton, when I saved the ship, if anybody did, it wag 
 allowed on all hands. Cap'n Eaton was n't hearty at that 
 time, he was jist gettin' up from a fever, it was when 
 Marthy Ann was a baby, and I jist took her and went U 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 353 
 
 sea and took care of him. I used to work the longitude for 
 him and help him lay the ship's course when his head was 
 bad, and when we came on the coast, we were kept out 
 of harbor beatin' about nearly three weeks, and all the 
 ship's tacklin' was stiff with ice, and I tell you the men 
 never would have stood it through and got the ship in, if it 
 had n't been for me. I kept their mittens and stockings all 
 the while a-dryin* at my stove in the cabin, and hot ctfTee 
 all the while a-boilin' for 'em, or I believe they 'd a-frozeo 
 their hands and feet, and never been able to work the ship 
 in. That 's the way / did. Now Sally Kittridge is a great 
 deal more like that than Mara." 
 
 " There 's no doubt that Sally is smart,'' said Mrs. Bad- 
 ger, "but then it a'n't every one can do like you, Mrs. 
 Eaton." 
 
 " Oh no, oh no," was murmured from mouth to mouth ; 
 " Mrs. Eaton must n't think she 's any rule for others, 
 everybody knows she can do more than most people;" 
 whereat the pacified Mrs. Eaton said " she did n't know 
 as it was anything remarkable, it showed what anybody 
 might do, if they 'd only try and have resolution ; but that 
 Mara never had been brought up to have resolution, and 
 her mother never had resolution before her, it wa n't in 
 any of Mary Fennel's family, she knew their grand- 
 mother and all their aunts, and they were all a weakly set, 
 and not fitted to get along in life, they were a kind of 
 people that somehow did n't seem to know how to take \old 
 of things." 
 
 At this moment the consultation was hushed up by the 
 entrance of Sally Kittridge and Mara, evidently on the 
 closest terms of intimacy, and more than usually demon- 
 strative and affectionate, they would sit together and use 
 
354 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 each other's needles, scissors, thread, and thimbles i 
 changeably, as if anxious to express every minute the most 
 overflowing confidence. Sly winks and didactic nods were 
 covertly exchanged among the elderly people, and when Mrs. 
 Kittridge entered with more than usual airs of impressive 
 solemnity, several of these were covertly directed toward 
 her, as a matron whose views in life must have been con* 
 Biderably darkened by the recent event. 
 
 Mrs. Kittridge, however, found an opportunity to whi?pei 
 under her breath to Miss Ruey what a relief to her it was 
 that the affair had taken such a turn. She had felt uneasy 
 all summer for fear of what might come. Sally was so 
 thoughtless and worldly, she felt afraid that he would lead 
 her astray. She did n't see, for her part, how a professor 
 of religion like Mara could make up her mind to such an 
 unsettled kind of fellow, even if he did seem to be rich and 
 well to do. But then she had done looking for consistency ; 
 and she sighed and vigorously applied herself to quilting 
 like one who has done with the world. 
 
 In return, Miss Ruey sighed and took snuff, and related 
 for the hundredth time to Mrs. Kittridge the great escape 
 Bhe once had from the addresses of Abraham Peters, who 
 had turned out a " poor drunken creetur." But then it was 
 only natural that Mara should be interested in Moses ; and 
 the good soul went off into her favorite verse : 
 
 " The fondness of a creature's love, 
 How strong it strikes the sense! 
 Thither the warm affections move, 
 Nor can we drive them thence." 
 
 In fact, Miss Ruey's sentimental vein was in quite a gushing 
 state, for she more than once extracted from the dark cor 
 nera of tho limp calico thread-case we have spoken of cer 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 355 
 
 iain long-treasured morceaux of newspaper poetry, of a 
 tender ai,d sentimental cast, which she had laid up with 
 true Yankee economy, in case any one should ever be in 
 a situation to need them. They related principally to the 
 union of kindred hearts, and the joys of reciprocated feel- 
 ing, and the pains of absence. Good Miss Ruey occasion- 
 ally passed these to Mara, with glances full of meaning, 
 which caused the poor old thing to resemble a sentimental 
 goblin, keeping Sally Kittridge in a perfect hysterical tern* 
 pest of suppressed laughter, and making it difficult for Mara 
 to preserve the decencies of life toward her well-intending 
 old friend. The trouble with poor Miss Ruey was that, 
 while her body had grown old and crazy, her soul was just 
 as juvenile as ever, and a simple, juvenile soul disporting 
 itself in a crazy, battered old body, is at great disadvantage. 
 It was lucky for her, however, that she lived in the most 
 sacred unconsciousness of the ludicrous effect of her little 
 indulgences, and the pleasure she took in them was certainly 
 of the most harmless kind. The world would be a far belter 
 and more enjoyable place than it is, if all people who are 
 old and uncomely could find amusement as innocent and 
 Christian-like as Miss Ruey's inoffensive thread-case collec- 
 tion of sentimental truisms. 
 
 This quilting of which we speak was a solemn, festive 
 occasion of the parish, held a week after Moses had sailed 
 away ; and so piquant a morsel as a recent engagement 
 could not, of course, fail to be served up for the company 
 in every variety of garnishing which individual tastes might 
 suggest. 
 
 It became an ascertained fact, however, in the course of 
 the evening festivities, that the minister was serenely appro 
 bative of the event ; that Captain Kittridge was at length 
 
356 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 brought to a sense of the errors of his way in supposing 
 that Sally had ever cared a pin for Moses more than as a 
 mutual friend and confidant ; and the great affair was set- 
 tled without more ripples of discomposure than usually attend 
 limilar announcements in more refined society. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 357 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE quilting broke up at the primitive hour of nine 
 o'clock, at which, in early New England days, all social 
 gatherings always dispersed. Captain Kittridge rowed his 
 helpmeet, with Mara and Sally, across the Bay to the 
 island. 
 
 " Come and stay with me to-night, Sally," said Mara. 
 
 " I think Sally had best be at home," said Mrs. Kittridge, 
 " There 's no sense in girls talking all night." 
 
 " There aVt sense in nothin' else, mother," said the Cap- 
 tain. " Next to sparkin', which is the Christianist thing I 
 knows on, comes gals' talks 'bout their sparks, they 's as 
 natural as crowsfoot and red columbines in the spring, and 
 spring don't come but once a year neither, and so let 'em 
 take the comfort on 't. I warrant now, Polly, you 've laid 
 awake nights and talked about me." 
 
 " We 've all been foolish once," said Mrs. Kittridge. 
 
 " Well, mother, we want to be foolish too," said Sally. 
 
 " Well, you and your father are too much for me," said 
 Mrs. Kittridge, plaintively; "you always get your own 
 way." 
 
 u How lucky that my way is always a good one ! " said 
 Sally. 
 
 u Well, you know, Sally, you are going to make the beer 
 to-morrow," still objected her mother. 
 
 * Oh, yes ; that 's another reason," said Sally. " Mara 
 
858 THE PEARL OF GRITS ISLAND. 
 
 and I shall come home through the woods in the morning, 
 and we can get whole apronfuls of young wintergreen, and 
 besides, I know where there 's a lot of sassafras root. We 'II 
 dig it, won't w r e, Mara ? " 
 
 " Yes ; and I '11 come down and help you brew," said 
 Mara, " Don't you remember the beer I made when Mosee 
 came home?" 
 
 u Yes, yes, I remember," said the Captain, " you sent ai 
 a couple of bottles." 
 
 " We can make better yet now," said Mara. u Th 
 wintergreen is young, and the green tips on the spruce 
 boughs are so full of strength. Everything is lively and 
 sunny now." 
 
 " Yes, yes," said the Captain, " and I 'spect I know why 
 things do look pretty lively to some folks, don't they ? " 
 
 " I don't know what sort of work you '11 make of the 
 beer among you," said Mrs. Kittridge ; " but you must 
 have it your own way." 
 
 Mrs. Kittridge, who never did anything else among her 
 tea-drinking acquaintances but laud and magnify Sally's 
 good traits and domestic acquirements, felt constantly bound 
 to keep up a faint show of controversy and authority in her 
 dealings with her, the fading remains of the strict gov- 
 ernment of her childhood ; but it was, nevertheless, very 
 perfectly understood, in a general way, that Sally was to 
 do as she pleased ; and so, when the boat came to shore! 
 the took the arm of Mara and started up toward the brown 
 house. 
 
 The air was soft and balmy, and though the moon by 
 which the troth of Mara and Moses had been plighted had 
 waned into the latest hours of the night, still a thousand 
 stars were lying in twinkling brightness, reflected from the 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 359 
 
 nndulating waves all around them, and the tide, as it rose 
 End fell, made a sound as gentle and soft as the respiration 
 of a peaceful sleeper. 
 
 " Well, Mara," said Sally, after an interval of silence, 
 " all has come out right. You see that it was you whom 
 he loved. What a lucky thing for me that I am made so 
 heartless, or I might not be as glad as I am." 
 
 " You are not heartless, Sally," said Mara ; " it 's the en- 
 chanted princess asleep; the right one has n't come to waken 
 iier." 
 
 Maybe so," said Sally, with her old light laugh. If 
 I only were sure he would make you happy now, half 
 as happy as you deserve, I 'd forgive him his share of 
 this summer's mischief. The fault was just half mine, you 
 see, for I witched with him. I confess it. I have my own 
 little spider-webs for these great lordly flies, and I like to 
 hear them buzz." 
 
 " Take care, Sally ; never do it again, or the spider-web 
 may get round you," said Mara. 
 
 " Never fear me," said Sally. " But, Mara, I wish I felt 
 tare that Moses could make you happy. Do you really 
 now, when you think seriously, feel as if he would ? " 
 
 u t I never thought seriously about it," said Mara ; " but 
 I know he needs me ; that I can do for him what no one 
 else can. I have always felt all my life that he was to be 
 mine ; that he was sent to me, ordained for me to care foi 
 and to love." 
 
 " You are well mated," said Sally. " He wants to be 
 icved very much, and you want to love. There's the ac- 
 tive and passive voice, as they used to say at Miss Pluch- 
 er*s. But yet in your natures you are opposite as any two 
 wuld well be" 
 
860 THE PLARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 Mara felt that there was in these chance words of Sally 
 more than she perceived. No one could feel as intensely 
 as she could that the mind and heart so dear to her were 
 yet, as to all that was most vital and real in her inner life, 
 unsympathizing. To her the spiritual world was a reality ; 
 God an ever-present consciousness ; and the line of this 
 present life seemed so to melt and lose itself in the antici 
 pation of a future and brighter one, that it was impossible 
 for her to speak intimately and not unconsciously to betray 
 the fact. To him there was only the life of this world ; 
 there was no present God ; and from all thought of a future 
 life he shrank with a shuddering aversion, as from some- 
 thing ghastly and unnatural. She had realized this differ- 
 ence more in the few days that followed her betrothal than 
 all her life before, for now first the barrier of mutual con- 
 straint and misunderstanding having melted away, each 
 spoke with an abandon and unreserve which made the 
 acquaintance more vitally intimate than ever it had been 
 before. It was then that Mara felt that while her sympa- 
 thies could follow him through all his plans and interests, 
 there was a whole world of thought and feeling in her heart 
 where his could not follow her ; and she asked herself, 
 Would it be so always? Must she walk at his side .for- 
 ever repressing the utterance of that which was most sacred 
 tnd intimate, living in a nominal and external communion 
 only ? How could it be that what was so lovely and clear 
 in its reality to her, that which was to her as life-blood, 
 that which was the vital air in which she lived and moved 
 And had her being, could be absolutely nothing to him ? 
 Was it really possible, as he said, that God had no existence 
 for him except in a nominal cold belief; that the spiritual 
 world was to him only a land of pale shades and doubtfu 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 361 
 
 glooms, from which he shrank with dread, and the least 
 allusion to which was distasteful ? and would this always be 
 so ? and if so, could she be happy ? 
 
 But Mara said the truth in saying that the question of 
 personal happiness never entered her thoughts. She loved 
 Moses in a way that made it necessary to her happiness to 
 dev:te herself to him, to watch over and care for him ; and 
 though she knew not how, she felt a sort of presentiment 
 that it was through her that he must be brought into sym- 
 pathy with a spiritual and immortal life. 
 
 All this passed through Mara's mind in the revery into 
 which Sally's last words threw her, as she sat on the door- 
 sill and looked off into the starry distance and heard the 
 weird murmur of the sea. 
 
 " How lonesome the sea at night always is," said Sally. " I 
 declare, Mara, I don't wonder you miss that creature, for, to 
 tell the truth, I do a little bit. It was something, you know, 
 to have somebody to come in, arid to joke with, and to say 
 how he liked one's hair and one's ribbons, and all that. I 
 quite got up a friendship for Moses, so that I can feel how 
 dull you must be ; " and Sally gave a half sigh, and then 
 whistled a tune as adroitly as a blackbird. 
 
 "Yes," said Mara, "we two girls down on this lonely 
 island need some one to connect us with the great world ; 
 und he was so full of life, and so certain and confident, he 
 b-eemed to open a way before one out into life." 
 
 " Well, of course, while he is gone there will be plenty to 
 ilo getting ready to be married, ' said Sally. " By the by, 
 tdien I was over to Portland the other day, Maria Potter 
 showed me a new pattern for a bed-quilt, the sweetest thing 
 rou can imagine, it is calbd the morning star. There is 
 16 
 
302 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 A great star in the centre, and little stars all around, while 
 on a blue ground. I mean to begin one for you." 
 
 " I am going to begin spinning some very fine flax next 
 week," said Mara ; " and have I shown you the new pattern 
 I drew for a counterpane ? it is to be morning-glories, leaves 
 and flowers, you know, a pretty idea, is n't it ? " 
 
 And so, the conversation falling from the region of tht* 
 sentimental to tha practical, the two girls went in and spp.ni 
 an hour in discussions so purely feminine that we will iiot 
 enlighten the reader further therewith. Sally seemed to be 
 inv siting all her energies in the preparation of *he wedding 
 outfit of her friend, about which she talked wivJi a constant 
 and i istless activity, and for which she formed a thousand 
 plans, and projected shopping tours to Portland, Brunswick, 
 and even to Boston, this last being about as far off a ven- 
 ture at that time as Paris now seems to a Boston belle. 
 
 " When you are married," said Sally, " you '11 have to 
 take me to live with you ; that creature sha'n't have you all 
 to himself. I hate men, they are so exorbitant, they 
 spoil all our playmates ; and what shall I do when you are 
 gone ? " 
 
 " You will go with Mr. what 's his name ? " said 
 Mara. 
 
 " Pshaw, I don't know him. I shall be an old maid," 
 said Sally ; " and really there is n't much harm in that if 
 one could have company, if somebody or other would n't 
 marry all one's friends, that 's lonesome," she said, wink- 
 ing a tear out of her black eyes and laughing. " If I were 
 only a young fellow now, Mara, I 'd have you myself, and 
 that would be just the thing ; and I 'd shoot Moses, if he 
 said a word; and I'd have money, and I'd have honors, 
 nd I 'd carry you off to Europe, and take you to Paris and 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 363 
 
 Rome, and nobody knows where ; and we 'd live in peace, 
 as the story-books say." 
 
 " Come, Sally, how wild you are talking," said Mara 
 " and the clock has just struck one ; let 's try to go to sleep." 
 
 Sally put her face to Mara's and kissed her, and Mara 
 felt a moist spot on her cheek, could it be a tear? 
 
804 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 AUNT ROXT and Aunt Ruey Toothacre lived in & little 
 one-story gambr el-roofed cottage, on the side of Harpswell 
 Bay, just at the head of the long cove which we have al- 
 ready described. The windows on two sides commanded 
 the beautiful bay and the opposite shores, and on the other 
 they looked out into the dense forest, through whose deep 
 shadows of white birch and pine the silver rise and fall of 
 the sea daily revealed itself. 
 
 The house itself was a miracle of neatness within, for the 
 two thrifty sisters were worshippers of soap and sand, and 
 these two tutelary deities had kept every board of the house- 
 floor white and smooth, and also every table and bench and 
 tub of household use. There was a sacred care over each 
 article, however small and insignificant, which composed 
 their slender household stock. The loss or breakage of one 
 of them would have made a visible crack in the hearts of the 
 worthy sisters, for every plate, knife, fork, spoon, cup, or 
 glass was as intimate with them, as instinct with home feel- 
 ing, as if it had a soul ; each defect or spot had its history, 
 and a cracked dish or article of furniture received as tender 
 and considerate medical treatment as if it were capable of 
 inderstanding and feeling the attention. 
 
 It was now a warm, spicy day in June, one of those 
 which bring out the pineapple fragrance from the fir-shoo ts ; 
 and cause the spruce and hemlocks to exude a warm, resinous 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 365 
 
 perfume. The two sisters, for a wonder, were having a day 
 to themselves, free from the numerous calls of the vicinity 
 for twelve miles round. The room in which they were sit- 
 ting was bestrewn with fragments of dresses and bonnets, 
 which were being torn to pieces in a most wholesale way, 
 with a view to a general rejuvenescence. A person of un- 
 sympathetic temperament, and disposed to take sarcastic 
 views of life, might perhaps wonder what possible object 
 these two battered and weather-beaten old bodies proposed 
 to themselves in this process, whether Miss Roxy's gaunt 
 black-straw helmet, which she had worn defiantly all winter, 
 was likely to receive much lustre from being pressed over 
 and trimmed with an old green ribbon which that energetic 
 female had colored black by a domestic recipe ; and whether 
 Miss Roxy's rusty bombazette would really seem to the 
 world any fresher for being ripped, and washed, and turned, 
 for the second or third time, and made over wfth every 
 breadth in a different situation. Probably after a week of 
 efficient labor, busily expended in bleaching, dyeing, pressing, 
 sewing, and ripping, an unenlightened spectator, seeing them 
 come into the meeting-house, would simply think, " There 
 are those two old frights with the same old things on they 
 have worn these fifty years." Happily the weird sisters 
 were contentedly ignorant of any such remarks, for no duch- 
 esses could have enjoyed a more quiet belief in their own 
 social position, and their semiannual spring and fall reha- 
 bilitation was therefore entered into with the most simple- 
 hearted satisfaction. 
 
 " I 'm a-thinkin', Roxy," said Aunt Ruey, considerately 
 turning and turning on her hand an old straw bonnet, on 
 which were streaked all the mark 8 * )f the former trimming in 
 lighter lines, which revealed too clearly the effects of wind 
 
566 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 and weather, " I 'm a-thinkin* whether or no this 'era 
 might n't as well be dyed and done with it as try to bleach 
 it out. I 've had it ten years last May, and it 's kind o 5 
 losin' its freshness, you know. I don't believe these 'ere 
 streaks will bleach out." 
 
 "Never mind, Ruey," said Miss Roxy, authoritatively, 
 " I 'm goin' to do Mis' Badger's leg'orn, and it won't cost 
 nothin' ; so hang your'n in the barrel along with it, the 
 same smoke '11 do 'em both. Mis' Badger she finds the 
 brimstone, and next fall you can put it in the dye when we 
 do the yam." 
 
 " That ar straw is a beautiful straw ! " said Miss Ruey, in 
 a plaintive tone, tenderly examining the battered old head- 
 piece, "I braided every stroke on 't myself, and I don't 
 know as I could do it ag'in. My fingers a'n't quite so lim- 
 ber as they was ! I don't think I shall put green ribbon on 
 it ag'in ; 'cause green is such a color to ruin, if a body gets 
 caught out in a shower ! There 's these green streaks come 
 that day I left my amberil at Captain Broad's, and went to 
 meetin'. Mis' Broad she says to me, * Aunt Ruey, it won't 
 rain.' And says I to her, Well, Mis' Broad, I '11 try it ; 
 though I never did leave my amberil at home but what it 
 rained.' And so I went, and sure enough it rained cats and 
 dogs, and streaked my bonnet all up ; and them ar streaks 
 won't bleach out, I 'm feared." 
 
 " How long is it Mis' Badger has had that ar leg'orn ? " 
 
 " Why, you know, the Cap'n he brought it home when he 
 came from his voyage from Marseilles. That ar was when 
 Phebe Ann was born, and she 's fifteen year old. It was 
 a most elegant thing when he brought it ; but I think il 
 kind o' led Mis' Badger on to extravagant ways, for get' 
 tin' new triramin' spring and fall so uses up money as fast aa 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 867 
 
 new bonnets ; but Mis' Badger 's got the money, and she 's 
 got a right to use it if she pleases ; but if I 'd a-havl nett 
 trimmin's spring and fall, I should n't a-put away what 1 
 have in the bank. 
 
 " Have you seen the straw Sally Kittridge is braidin' for 
 Mara Lincoln's weddin' bonnet ? " said Miss Ruey. " It 's 
 jist the finest thing ever you did see, and the whitest. 1 
 was a-tellin' Sally that I could do as well once myself, but 
 my mantle was a-fallin' on her. Sally don't seem to act a 
 bit like a dissip'inted gal. She is as chipper as she can be 
 about Mara's weddin', and seems like she couldn't do too 
 much. But laws, everybody seems to want to be a-doin' for 
 her. Miss Emily was a-showin' me a fine double damask 
 table-cloth that she was goin' to give her ; and Mis' Fennel, 
 she 's been a-spinnin' and layin' up sheets and towels and 
 table-cloths all her life, and then she has all Naomi's 
 things. Mis' Fennel was talkin' to me the other day about 
 bleachin' 'em out 'cause they 'd got yellow a-lyin'. I kind o* 
 felt as if 't was unlucky to be a-fittin' out a bride with her 
 dead mother's things, but I did n't like to say nothinV 
 
 " Ruey," said Miss Roxy impressively, " I ha' n't never 
 had but jist one mind about Mara Lincoln's weddin', it 's 
 to be, but it won't be the way people think. I ha' n't 
 nussed and watched and sot up nights sixty years for 
 nothin'. I can see beyond what most folks can, her 
 weddin' garments is bought and paid for, and she '11 wear 
 'em, but she won't be Moses Fennel's wife, now you see." 
 
 " Why, whose wife will she be then ? " said Miss Ruey ; 
 u cause that ar Mr. Adams is married. I saw it in the 
 paper last week when I was up to Mis' Badger's." 
 
 Miss Roxy shut her lips with oracular sternness and 
 rent OP rith her sewing. 
 
368 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Who *s that corain' in the back-door ? " said Miss Ruey, 
 RS the sound of a footstep fell upon her ear. " Bless me/ 1 
 she added, as she started up to look, " if folks a'n't always 
 nearest when you 're talkin' about 'em. Why, Mara ; you 
 come down here and catched us in all our dirt ! Well iiow, 
 we 're glad to see you, if we be," said Miss Ruey. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORB'S ISLAND. 369 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Ii was in trutd Mara herself who came and stood in the 
 door-way. She appeared overwearied with her walk, for her 
 cheeks had a vivid brightness unlike their usual tender pink. 
 Her eyes had, too, a brilliancy almost painful to look upon. 
 They seemed like ardent fires, in which the life was slowly 
 burning away. 
 
 " Sit down, sit down, little Mara," said Aunt Ruey. 
 " Why, how like a picture you look this mornin', one 
 need n't ask you how you do, it 's plain enough that you 
 are pretty well." 
 
 " Yes, I am, Aunt Ruey," she answered, sinking into a 
 chair ; " only it is warm to-day, and the sun is so hot, that 's 
 all, I believe ; but I am very tired." 
 
 " So you are now, poor thing," said Miss Ruey. " Roxy, 
 where 's my turkey-feather fan ? Oh, here 't is ; there, take 
 it, and fan you, child ; and maybe you '11 have a glass of our 
 spruce beer ? " 
 
 " Thank you, Aunt Roxy. I brought you some young 
 wintergreen," said Mara, unrolling from her handkerchief a 
 small knot of those fragrant leaves, which were wilted by 
 ihe heat. 
 
 " Thank you, I 'm sure," said Miss Ruey, in delight; "you 
 
 always fetch something, Mara, always would ever since 
 
 you could toddle. Roxy and I was jist talkin* about your 
 
 leeddin* I s'pose you 're gettin' things well along down to 
 
 16* 
 
870 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 your house. Well, here 's the beer. I don't hardly know 
 whether you '11 think it worked enough though. I set it 
 Saturday afternoon, for all Mis' Twitchel said it was wicked 
 for beor to work Sundays," said Miss Ruey, with a feeble 
 cackle at her own joke. 
 
 " Thank you, Aunt Ruey, it is excellent, as your things 
 always are. I was very thirsty." 
 
 " I s'pose you hear from Moses pretty often now," said 
 Aunt Ruey. " How kind o' providential it happened about 
 his getting that property ; he '11 be a rich man now ; and 
 Mara, you '11 come to grandeur, won't you ? Well, I don't 
 know anybody deserves it more, I r'ally don't. Mis' 
 Badger was a-sayin' so a-Sunday, and Cap'n Kittridge 
 and all on 'em. I s'pose though we 've got to lose you, 
 you '11 be goin' off to Boston or New York, or somewhere." 
 
 " We can't tell what may happen, Aunt Ruey," said Mara, 
 and there was a slight tremor in her voice as she spoke. 
 
 Miss Roxy, who beyond the first salutations had taken no 
 part in this conversation, had from time to time regarded 
 Mara over the tops of her spectacles with looks of grave 
 apprehension ; and Mara, looking up, now encountered one 
 of these glances. 
 
 " Have you taken the dock and dandelion tea I told you 
 about ? " said the wise woman, rather abruptly. 
 
 ** Yes, Aunt Roxy, I have taken them faithfully for two 
 weeks past." 
 
 " And do they seem to set you up any ? " said Miss Roxy. 
 
 " No, I don't think they do. Grandma thinks I 'm better, 
 ind grandpa, and I let them think so ; but Miss Roxy, can't 
 you think of something else ? " 
 
 Miss Roxy laid aside the straw bonnet which she wai 
 ripping, and motioned Mara into the outer room, the sink 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 371 
 
 room, as the sisters called it. It was the scullery of their 
 little establishment, the place where all dish-washing and 
 clothes-washing was generally performed, but the boards 
 of the floor were white as snow, and the place had the odor 
 of neatness. The open door looked out pleasantly into the 
 deep forest, where the waters of the cove, now at high tide, 
 could be seen glittering through the trees. Soft moving 
 spots of sunlight fell, checkering the feathery ferns and small 
 piney tribes of evergreen which ran in ruffling wreaths of 
 green through the dry, brown matting of fallen pine needles. 
 Birds were singing and calling to each other merrily from 
 the green shadows of the forest, everything had a sylvan 
 fulness and freshness of life. There are moods of mind 
 when the sight of the bloom and freshness of nature affects 
 us painfully, like the want of sympathy in a dear friend. 
 Mara had been all her days a child of the woods ; her deli- 
 cate life had grown up in them like one of their own cool 
 shaded flowers ; and there was not a moss, not a fern, not 
 an up-springing thing that waved a leaf or threw forth a 
 flower-bell, that was not a well-known friend to her ; she 
 had watched for years its haunts, known the time of its com- 
 ing and its going, studied its shy and veiled habits, and inter- 
 woven with its life each year a portion of her own ; and now 
 she looked out into the old mossy woods, with their waver- 
 ing spots of sun and shadow, with a yearning pain, as if 
 she wanted help or sympathy to come from their sileut 
 recesses. 
 
 She sat down on the clean, scoured door-sill, and took off 
 her straw hat. Her golden-brown hair was moist with the 
 damps of fatigue, which made it curl and wave in darker 
 little rings about her forehead her eyes, those longing, 
 wistful eyes, had a deeper pathos of sadness than ever 
 
372 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 they had worn before ; and her delicate lips tren.bled witb 
 Borne strong suppressed emotion. 
 
 " Aunt Roxy," she said suddenly, " I must speak to some- 
 body. I can't go on and keep up without telling some one, 
 and it had better be you, because you have skill and experi- 
 ence, and can help me if anybody can. I 've been going on 
 for six months now, taking this and taking that, and trying 
 to got better, but it 's of no use. Aunt Roxy, I feel my life 
 going, going just as steadily and as quietly every day as 
 the sand goes out of your hour-glass. I want to live, ch, 
 I never wanted to live so much, and I can't, oh, I know I 
 can't. Can I now, do you think I can ? " 
 
 Mara looked imploringly at Miss Roxy. The hard-vis- 
 aged woman sat down on the wash-bench, and, covering her 
 worn, stony visage with her checked apron, sobbed aloud. 
 
 Mara was confounded. This implacably withered, sensi- 
 ble, dry woman, beneficently impassive in sickness and sor- 
 row, weeping 1 it was awful as if one of the Fates had 
 laid down her fatal distaff to weep. 
 
 Mara sprung up impulsively and threw her arms round 
 her neck. 
 
 " Now don't, Aunt Roxy, don't. I did n't think you would 
 feel bad, or I would n't have told you ; but oh, you don't 
 know how hard it is to keep such a secret all to one's self. 
 I have to make believe all the time that I am feeling well 
 and getting better. I really say what is n't true every day 
 because, poor grandmamma, how could I bear to see her 
 distress ? and grandpapa, oh, I wish people did n't love 
 me so ! Why cannot they let me go ? And oh, Aunt Roxy, 
 I had a letter only yesterday, and he is so sure we shall be 
 married this fall, and I know it cannot be." Mara's voice 
 gave way in sobs, and the two wept together, the old grin 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 873 
 
 gray woman holding the soft golden head against her breast 
 with a convulsive grasp. " Oh, Aunt Roxy, do you love me, 
 too ? " said Mara. " I did n't know you did." 
 
 " Love ye, child ? " said Miss Roxy ; "yes, I love ye like 
 my life. I a'n't one that makes talk about things, but I do ; 
 you come into my arms fust of anybody's in this world, 
 ind except poor little Hitty, I never loved nobody as 1 havo 
 you/' 
 
 " Ah ! that was your sister, whose grave I have seen," 
 *aid Mara, speaking in a soothing, caressing tone, and put- 
 ting her little thin hand against the grim, wasted cheek, 
 which was now moist with tears. 
 
 " Jes' so, child, she died when she was a year younger 
 than you be ; she was not lost, for God took her. Poor 
 Hitty ! her life jest dried up like a brook in August, jest 
 BO. Well, she was hopefully pious, and it was better for 
 her." 
 
 " Did she go like me, Aunt Roxy ? " said Mara. 
 
 " Well, yes, dear ; she did begin jest so, and I gave her 
 everything I could think of; and we had doctors for her far 
 and near ; but 't was n't to be, that 's all we could say ; 
 she was called, and her time was come." 
 
 " Well, now, Aunt Roxy," said Mara, " at any rate, it 's a 
 relief to speak out to some one. It 's more than two months 
 that I have felt every day more and more that there was no 
 hope, life has hung on me like a weight. I have had to 
 make myself keep up, and make myself do everything, and 
 no one knows how it has tried me. I am so tired all the 
 time, I could cry ; and yet when I go to bed nights I can't 
 sleep, I lie in such a hot, restless way ; and then before 
 morning I am drenched with cold sweat, and feel so weak 
 and wrRtched. I force myself to eat, and I force myself to 
 
374 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 talk and laugh, and it 's all pretence ; and it wears me out, 
 it would be better if I stopped trying, it would be 
 bettei to give up and act as weak as I feel ; but how can I 
 let them know ? " 
 
 " My dear child," said Aunt Roxy, " the truth is the kind- 
 est thing we can give folks in the end. When folks know 
 jest where they are, why they can walk ; you '11 all be sup- 
 ported ; you must trust in the Lord. I have been more 'n 
 forty years with sick rooms and dyin' beds, and I never 
 knew it fail that those that trusted in the Lord was brought 
 through." 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Roxy, it is so hard for me to give up, to 
 give up hoping to live. There were a good many years 
 when I thought I should love- to depart, not that I was 
 really unhappy, but I longed to go to heaven, though I knew 
 it was selfish, when I knew how lonesome I should leave 
 my friends. But now, oh, life has looked so bright ; I have 
 clung to it so ; I do now. I lie awake nights and pray, and 
 try to give it up and be resigned, and I can't. Is it wicked ? " 
 
 " Well, it 's natur' to want to live," said Miss Roxy. 
 u Life is sweet, and in a gen'l way we was made to live. 
 Don't worry ; the Lord '11 bring you right when His time 
 comes. Folks is n't always supported jest when they want 
 to be, nor as they want to be ; but yet they 're supported 
 fust and last. Ef I was to tell you how as I has hope in 
 your case, I should n't be a-tellin' you the truth. I has n't 
 much of any ; only all things is possible with God. If you 
 could kind o' give it all up and rest easy in his hands, and 
 keep a-doin' what you can, why, while there 's life there 's 
 Aope, you know ; and if you are to be made well, you will 
 be all the sooner." 
 
 "Aunt Roxy, it's all right; I know it 's all right. God 
 
fllE PKAHL OF CMirS ISLAND. 375 
 
 knows best ; He will do what is best ; 1 know that ; but 
 my heart bleeds, and is sore. And when I get his letters, 
 I got one yesterday, it brings it all back again. Every- 
 thing is going on so well ; he says he has done more than all 
 he ever hoped ; his letters are full of jokes, full of spirit. 
 Ah, he little knows, and how can I tell him ? " 
 
 " Child, you need n't yet. You can jest kind o' prepare 
 his mind a little." 
 
 " Aunt Roxy, have you spoken of my case to any one, - 
 have you told what you know of me ? " 
 
 " No, child, I ha' n't said nothin' more than that you 
 was a little weakly now and then." 
 
 "I have such a color every afternoon," said Mara. 
 " Grandpapa talks about my roses, and Captain Kittridge 
 jokes me about growing so handsome ; nobody seems to 
 realize how I feel. I have kept up with all the strength 
 I had. I have tried to shake it off, and to feel that nothing 
 was the matter, really there is nothing much only this 
 weakness. This morning I thought it would do me good to 
 walk down here. I remember times when I could ramble 
 whole days in the woods, but I was so tired before I got 
 halfway here that I had to stop a long while and rest. 
 Aunt Roxy, if you would only tell grandpapa and grand- 
 mamma just how things are, and what the danger is, and 
 let them stop talking to me about wedding things, for 
 really and truly I am too unwell to keep up any longer." 
 
 " Well, child, I will," said Miss Roxy. " Your grand- 
 father will be supported, and hold you up, for he 's one 
 of the sort as has the secret of the Lord, I remember 
 him of old. Why, the day vour father and mother was 
 buried he stood up and sung old China, and his face was 
 wonderful to see. He seemed to be standm' with the. world 
 
876 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 under his feet and heaven opening. He 's a master Chria* 
 tian, your grandfather is ; and now you jest go and lie down 
 in the little bedroom, and rest you a bit, and by and by, in 
 the cool of the afternoon, I '11 walk along home with you." 
 
 Miss Roxy opened the door of a little room, whose white 
 fringy window-curtains were blown inward by breezes from 
 the blue sea, and laid the child down to rest on a clean sweet- 
 smelling bed with as deft and tender care as if she were not 
 a bony, hard-visaged, angular female, in a black mohair fri- 
 sette. 
 
 She stopped a moment wistfully before a little profile head, 
 of a kind which resembles a black shadow on a white ground. 
 " That was Hitty ! " she said. 
 
 Mara had often seen in the graveyard a mound inscribed 
 to this young person, and heard traditionally of a young and 
 pretty sister of Miss Roxy who had died very many years 
 before. But the grave was overgrown with blackberry-vines, 
 and gray moss had grown into the crevices of the slab which 
 served for a tombstone, and never before that day had she 
 heard Miss Roxy speak of her. Miss Roxy took down the 
 little black object and handed it to Mara. " You can't tell 
 much by that, but she was a most beautiful creatur'. Well, 
 it 's all best as it is." Mara saw nothing but a little black 
 shadow cast on white paper, yet she was affected by the per- 
 ception how bright, how beautiful, was the image in the 
 memory of that seemingly stern, commonplace woman, and 
 how of all that in her mind's eye she saw and remembered, 
 she could find no outward witness but this black block. " Sc 
 some day my friends will speak of me as a distant shadow, 
 she said, as with a sigh she turned her head on the pillow. 
 
 Miss Roxy shut the door gently as she went out, and be- 
 yayed the unwonted rush of softer feelings which had come 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLANb. 377 
 
 ivei her only by being more dictatorial and commanding than 
 usual in her treatment of her sister, who was sitting in fidg- 
 ety curiosity to know what could have been the subject of 
 the private conference. 
 
 " I s'pose Mara wanted to get some advice about makin* 
 up her weddin' things," said Miss Ruey, with a sort of hum' 
 ble quiver, as Miss Roxy began ripping and tearing fiercelj 
 at her old straw bonnet, as if she really purposed its utter 
 and immediate demolition. 
 
 " No she did n't, neither," said Miss Roxy fiercely. * 1 
 declare, Ruey, you are silly ; your head is always full of 
 weddin's, weddin's, weddin's nothin' else from mornin' 
 till night, and night till mornin'. I tell you there 's other 
 things have got to be thought of in this world besides wed- 
 din' clothes, and it would be well, if people would think more 
 o' gettin' their weddin' garments ready for the kingdom of 
 heaven. That 's what Mara 's got to think of; for, mark my 
 words, Ruey, there is no marryin' and givin' in marriage for 
 her in this world." 
 
 " Why, bless me, Roxy, now you don't say so ! " said Miss 
 Ruey ; " why I knew she was kind o* weakly and ailin', 
 but " 
 
 " Kind o' weakly and ailin' ! " said Miss Roxy, taking up 
 Miss Ruey's words in a tone of high disgust, " I should rather 
 think she was ; and more 'n that, too : she 's marked for 
 death, and that before long, too. It may be that Moses 
 Fennel '11 never see her again he never half knew what 
 Bhe was worth maybe he '11 know when he 's lost her, 
 that 'i one comfort ! " 
 
 " But," said Miss Ruey, " everybody has been a-sayin' 
 what a beautiful color she was a-gettin' in her cheeks." 
 
 " Color in her cheeks ! " snorted Miss Roxy ; '' so does a 
 
378 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 rock-maple get color in September and turn all scarlet, and 
 what for ? why, the frost has been at it, and its time is out. 
 That 's what your bright colors stand for. Ha' n't you 
 noticed that little gravestone cough, jest the faintest in the 
 world, and it don't come from a cold, and it hangs on. I tell 
 you you can't cheat me, she's goin' jest as Mehitabel went, 
 jest as Sally Ann Smith went, jest as Louisa Pearson went. 
 I could count now on my fingers twenty girls that have gone 
 that way. Nobody saw 'em goin' till they was gone." 
 
 " Well, now, I don't think the old folks have the least idea 
 on %" said Miss Ruey. " Only last Saturday Mis' Fennel 
 was a-talkin' to me about the sheets and table-cloths she 's 
 got out a-bleachin' ; and she said that the weddin' dress was 
 to be made over to Mis' Mosely's in Portland, 'cause Moses 
 he 's so particular about havin' things genteel." 
 
 " Well, Master Moses '11 jest have to give up his particular 
 notions," said Miss Roxy, " and come down in the dust, 
 like all the rest on us, when the Lord sends an east wind 
 and withers our gourds. Moses Pennel 's one of the sort 
 that expects to drive all before him with the strong arm, and 
 sech has to learn that things a'n't to go as they please in the 
 Lord's world. Sech always has to come to spots that they 
 can't get over nor under nor round, to have their own way, 
 bat jest has to give right up square." 
 
 " Well, Roxy," said Miss Ruey, " how does the poor 
 little thing take it ? Has she got reconciled ? " 
 
 " Reconciled ! Ruey, how you do ask questions ! " said 
 Miss Roxy, fiercely pulling a bandanna silk handkerchief out 
 of her pocket, with which she wiped her eyes in a defiant 
 manner. " Reconciled ! It 's easy enough to talk, Ruey 
 but how would you like it, when everything was goin 
 smooth and play in' into your hands, and all the world smooth 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 379 
 
 Kid shiny, to be took short up ? I guess you would n't be 
 reconciled. That 's what I guess." 
 
 %< Dear me, Roxy, who said I should ? " said Miss Ruey. 
 u I wa' n't blamin* the poor child, not a grain." 
 
 " Well, who said you was, Ruey ? " answered Miss Roxy 
 in the same high key. 
 
 " You need n't take my head off," said Aunt Ruey, roused 
 as much as her adipose, comfortable nature could be. "You 
 're been a-talkin' at me ever since you came in from the 
 gink-room, as if /was to blame ; and snappin' at me as if I 
 had n't a right to ask civil questions ; and I won't Stan* it," 
 said Miss Ruey. " And while I 'm about it, I '11 say that 
 you always have snubbed me and contradicted and ordered 
 me round. I won't bear it no longer." 
 
 " Come, Ruey, don't make a fool of yourself at your time 
 of life," said Miss Roxy. " Things is bad enough in this 
 world without two lone sisters and church-members turnin* 
 agin each other. You must take me as I am, Ruey ; my 
 bark 's worse than my bite, as you know." 
 
 Miss Ruey sank back pacified into her usual state of 
 pillowy dependence it was so much easier to be good- 
 natured than to contend. As for Miss Roxy if you have 
 ever carefully examined a chestnut-burr you will remember 
 that, hard as it is to handle, no plush of downiest texture 
 can exceed the satin smoothness of the fibres which line its 
 heart. There are a class of people in New England who 
 betray the uprising of the softer feelings of our nature only 
 by an increase of outward asperity a sort of bashfulness 
 and shyness leaves them no power of expression for these 
 unwonted guests of the heart they hurry them into inner 
 chambers and slam the doors upon them, as if they were 
 vexed at their appearance. 
 
880 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Now if poor Miss Roxy had been like you, my deal 
 young ludy if her soul had been encased in a round, rosy, 
 and comely body, and looked out of tender blue eyes shaded 
 by golden hair, probably the grief and love she felt would 
 have shown themselves only in bursts of feeling most grace- 
 ful to see, and engaging the sympathy of all ; but this same 
 soul, imprisoned in a dry, angular body, stiff and old, and 
 looking out under beetling eyebrows, over withered high 
 cheek-bones, could only utter itself by a passionate tempest 
 unlovely utterance of a lovely impulse dear only to 
 Him who sees with a Father's heart the real beauty of 
 spirits. It is our firm faith that bright solemn angels in 
 celestial watchings were frequent guests in the homely room 
 of the two sisters, and that passing by all accidents of age 
 and poverty, withered skins, bony features, and grotesque 
 movements, and shabby clothing, they saw more real beauty 
 there than in many a scented boudoir where seeming angels 
 smile in lace and satin. 
 
 " Ruey," said Miss Roxy, in a more composed voice, 
 while her hard, bony hands still trembled with excitement, 
 " this 'ere 's been on my mind a good while. I ha* n't said 
 nothin' to nobody, but I 've seen it a-comin'. I always 
 thought that child wa' n't for a long life. Lives is run in 
 different lengths, and nobody can say what 's the matter with 
 some folks, only that their thread 's run out ; there 's more on 
 one spool and less on another. I thought, when we laid 
 Hitty in the grave, that I should n't never set ray heart on 
 nothin' else but we can't jest say we will or we won't. 
 Ef we are to be sorely afflicted at any time, the Lord lets 
 us set our hearts before we know it. This 'ere 's a great 
 affliction to me, Ruey, but I must jest shoulder my cross and 
 go through with it. I'm goin' down to-night to tell the 
 
THF PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 381 
 
 old folks, and to make arrangements so that the poor little 
 lamb may have the care she needs. She 's been a-keepin' 
 up so long, 'cause she dreaded to let 'em know, but this 'ere 
 has got to be looked right in the face, and I hope there '11 be 
 grace given to do it." 
 
i*82 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 MEANWHILE Mara had been lying in the passive calm of 
 fatigue and exhaustion, her eyes fixed on the window, where, 
 as the white curtain drew inward, she could catch glimpses 
 of the bay. Gradually her eyelids fell, and she dropped 
 into that kind of half-waking doze, when the outer senses 
 are at rest, and the mind is all the more calm and clear for 
 their repose. In such hours a spiritual clairvoyance often 
 seems to lift for a while the whole stifling cloud that lies like 
 a confusing mist over the problem of life, and the soul has 
 sudden glimpses of things unutterable which lie beyond. 
 Then the narrow straits that look so full of rocks and quick- 
 sands, widen into a broad, clear passage, and one after an- 
 other, rosy with a celestial dawn, and ringing silver bells of 
 gladness, the isles of the blessed lift themselves up on the 
 horizon, and the soul is flooded with an atmosphere of light 
 and joy. As the burden of Christian fell off at the cross and 
 was lost in the sepulchre, so in these hours of celestial vision 
 the whole weight of life's anguish is lifted, and passes away 
 like a dream ; and the soul, seeing the boundless ocean of 
 Divine love, wherein all human hopes and joys and sorrow? 
 He so tenderly upholden, comes and casts the one little drop 
 of its personal will and personal existence with gladness into 
 that Fatherly depth. Henceforth, with it, God and Saviour 
 s no more word of mine and thine, for in that hour the child 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 383 
 
 Df earth feels himself heir of all things " All things are 
 
 jrours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 
 
 ******* 
 
 " The child is asleep," said Miss Roxy, as she stole on 
 tiptoe into the room when their noon meal was prepared. 
 A plate and knife had been laid for her, and they had 
 placed for her a tumbler of quaint old engraved glass, re- 
 puted to have been brought over from foreign parts, and 
 which had been given to Miss Roxy as her share in the 
 effects of the mysterious Mr. Swadkins. Tea also was 
 served in some egg-like India china cups, which saw the 
 light only on the most high and festive occasions. 
 
 " Had n't you better wake her ? " said Miss Ruey, " a cup 
 of hot tea would do her so much good." 
 
 Miss Ruey could conceive of few sorrows or ailments 
 which would not be materially better for a cup of hot tea. 
 If not the very elixir of life, it was indeed the next thing 
 to it 
 
 " Well," said Miss Roxy, after laying her hand for a 
 moment with great gentleness on that of the sleeping girl, 
 " she don't wake easy, and she 's tired ; and she seems to be 
 enjoying it so. The Bible says, ' He giveth his beloved 
 sleep,' and I won't interfere. I 've seen more good come of 
 sleep than most things in my nursin' experience," said Miss 
 Roxy, and she shut the door gently, and the two sisters sat 
 down to their noontide meal. 
 
 " How long the child does sleep ! " said Miss Ruey as the 
 old clock struck four. 
 
 " It was too much for her, this walk down here," said 
 Aunt Roxy. " She 's been doin' too much for a long time. 
 I 'm a-goin' to put an end to that. Well, nobody need n'l 
 lay Mara ha' n't got resolution. I never see a little thing 
 
B84 THE PEARL OF ORK'S ISLAND. 
 
 have more. She always did have, when she was the leastest 
 little thing. She was always quiet and white and still, but 
 she did whatever she sot out to." 
 
 At this moment, to their surprise, the door opened, and 
 Mara came in, and both sisters were struck with a change 
 that had passed over her. It was more than the result of 
 mere physical repose. Not only had every sign of weari- 
 ness and bodily languor vanished, but there was about her 
 an air of solemn serenity and high repose that made her 
 seem, as Miss Ruey afterwards said, " like an angel jest 
 walked out of the big Bible." 
 
 " Why, dear child, how you have slept, and how bright 
 and rested you look," said Miss Ruey. 
 
 " I am rested," said Mara ; " oh how much ! And happy," 
 she added, laying her little hand on Miss Roxy's shoulder. 
 " I thank you, dear friend, for all your kindness to me. 1 
 am sorry I made you feel so sadly ; but now you must n't 
 feel so any more, for all is well yes, all is well. I see 
 now that it is so. I have passed beyond sorrow yes, 
 forever." 
 
 Soft-hearted Miss Ruey here broke into audible sobbing, 
 hiding her face in her hands, and looking like a tumbled 
 heap of old faded calico in a state of convulsion. 
 
 " Dear Aunt Ruey, you must n't," said Mara, with a voice 
 of gentle authority. " We must n't any of us feel so any 
 more. There is no harm done no real evil is coming 
 only a good which we do not understand. I am perfectly 
 catisfied perfectly at rest now. I was foolish and' weak to 
 feel as I did this morning, but I shall not feel so any more 
 I shall comfort you all. Is it anything so dreadful for me 
 to go to heaven ? How little while it will be before you al" 
 come to me ! Oh, how little, little while ! " 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 385 
 
 * I told you, Mara, that you 'd be supported in the Lord's 
 time," said Miss Boxy, who watched her with an air of 
 grave and soiemn attention. " First and last, folks allers is 
 supported ; but sometimes there is a long wrestlin'. The 
 Lord f s give you the victory early." 
 
 " Victory ! " said the girl, speaking as in a deep muse, 
 and with a mysterious brightness in her eyes ; ** yes, that is 
 the word it is a victory no other word expresses it 
 Come, Aunt Roxy, we will go home. I am not afraid now 
 to tell grandpapa and grandmamma. God will care for 
 them ; He will wipe away all tears." 
 
 " Well, though, you mus* n't think of goin' till you Ve had 
 a cup of tea," said Aunt Buey, wiping her eyes. " I Ve 
 kep' the teapot hot by the fire, and you must eat a little 
 something for it 's long past dinner-time." 
 
 " Is it ? " said Mara. " I had no idea I had slept so long 
 how thoughtful and kind you are ! " 
 
 "I do wish I could only do more for you," said Miss 
 Buey. " I don't seem to get reconciled no ways ; it seems 
 dreffle hard dreffle ; but I 'm glad you can feel so ; " and 
 the good old soul proceeded to press upon the child not 
 only the tea, which she drank with feverish relish, but 
 every hoarded dainty which their limited house-keeping 
 commanded. 
 
 It was toward sunset before Miss Boxy and Mara started 
 on their walk homeward. Their way lay over the high 
 Btoiiy ridge which forms the central part of the island. On 
 one side, through the pines, they looked out into the bound- 
 less blue of the ocean, and on the other caught glimpses of 
 Harpswell Bay as it lay glorified in the evening light. The 
 fresh cool breeze blowing lane 1 ward brought with it an invig- 
 orating influence, which Mara felt through all her feverish 
 17 
 
386 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 frame. She walked with an energy to which she ha<i long 
 been a stranger. She said little, but there was a sweetness, 
 a repose in her manner contrasting singularly with the pas- 
 sionate melancholy which she had that morning expressed. 
 
 Miss Roxy did not interrupt her meditations. The na- 
 ture of her profession had rendered her familiar with all the 
 changing mental and physical phenomena that attend the 3e- 
 vclopment of disease and the gradual loosening of the silver 
 cords of a present life. Certain well-understood phrases 
 everywhere current among the mass of the people in New 
 England, strikingly tell of the deep foundations of religious 
 earnestness on which its daily life is built. " A triumphant 
 death " was a matter often casually spoken of among the 
 records of the neighborhood; and Miss Roxy felt that there 
 was a vague and solemn charm about its approach. Yet the 
 soul of the gray, dry woman was hot within her, for the con- 
 versation of the morning had probed depths in her own 
 nature of whose existence she had never before been so 
 conscious. The roughest and most matter-of-fact minds 
 have a craving for the ideal somewhere ; and often this 
 craving, forbidden by uncomeliness and ungenial surround- 
 ings from having any personal history of its own, attaches 
 itself to the fortune of some other one in a kind of strange 
 disinterestedness. Some one young and beautiful is to live 
 the life denied to them to be the poem and the romance ; 
 it is the young mistress of the poor black slave the pretty 
 sister of the homely old spinster or the clever son of the 
 consciously ill-educated father. Something of this uncon- 
 scious personal investment had there been on the part of 
 Miss Roxy in the nursling whose singular loveliness she 
 bad watched for so many years, and on whose fair virgin 
 orb she had marked the growing shadow of a fatal eclipse 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 387 
 
 and as she saw her glowing and serene, with that peculiar 
 brightness that she felt came from no earthly presence or in- 
 fluence, she could scarcely keep the tears from her honest 
 gray eyes. 
 
 When they arrived at the door of the house, Zephaniah 
 Fennel was sitting in it, looking toward the sunset. 
 
 " Why, reely," he said, " Miss Roxy, we thought you 
 must a-run away with Mara ; she 's been gone a'mcst all 
 day." 
 
 " I expect she *s had enough to talk with Aunt Roxy 
 about," said Mrs. Fennel. " Girls goin' to get married have 
 a deal to talk about, what with patterns and contrivin' and 
 makin' up. But come in, Miss Roxy ; we 're glad to see 
 you." 
 
 Mara turned to Miss Roxy, and gave her a look of pe- 
 culiar meaning. "Aunt Roxy," she said, "you must tell 
 them what we have been talking about to-day ; " and then 
 she went up to her room and shut the door. 
 
 Miss Roxy accomplished her task with a matter-of-fact 
 distinctness to which her business-like habits of dealing with 
 sickness and death had accustomed her, yet with a sympa- 
 thetic tremor in her voice which softened the hard directness 
 of her words. " You can take her over to Portland, if you 
 say so, and get Dr. Wilson's opinion," she said, in conclusion. 
 u It 's best to have all done that can be, though in my mind 
 the case is decided." 
 
 The silence that fell between the three was broken at last 
 uy the sound of a light footstep descending the stairs, and 
 Mara entered among them. 
 
 She came forward and threw her arms round Mrs. Fen- 
 nel's neck, and kissed her; and then turning, she nestled 
 lown in the arms of her old grandfather, as she had often 
 
388 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 done in the old days of childhood, and laid her hand upon 
 his shoulder. There was no sound for a few moments but 
 one of suppressed weeping ; but she did not weep she lay 
 with bright calm eyes, as if looking upon some celestial 
 vision. 
 
 " It is not so very sad," she said at last, in a gentle voice, 
 " that I should go thsfe ; you are going, too, and grandmam- 
 ma ; we are all going ; and we shall be forever with the 
 Lord. Think of it ! think of it!" 
 
 Many were the words spoken in that strange communing ; 
 and before Miss Roxy went away, a calmness of solemn rest 
 had settled down on all. The old family Bible was brought 
 forth, and Zephaniah Fennel read from it those strange 
 words of strong consolation, which take the sting from death 
 and the victory from the grave : 
 
 " And I heard a great voice out of heaven, * Behold the 
 tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, 
 and they shall be his people ; and God himself shall be with 
 them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears 
 from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither 
 sorrow nor crying, for the former things are passed away ' " 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 389 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 As Miss Roxy was leaving the dwelling of the Fennels, 
 she met Sally Kittridge coming toward the house, laughing 
 and singing, as was her wont. She raised her long lean 
 forefinger with a gesture of warning. 
 
 " What 's the matter now, Aunt Roxy ? You look as 
 solemn as a hearse." 
 
 " None o' your jokin' now, Miss Sally ; there is such a 
 thing as serious things in this 'ere world of our'n, for all you 
 girls never seems to know it." 
 
 " What is the matter, Aunt Roxy ? has anything hap- 
 pened ? is anything the matter with Mara ? " 
 
 " Matter enough. I've known it a long time," said Miss 
 Roxy. " She 's been goin' down for three months now ; and 
 she 's got that on her that will carry her off before the 
 year's out." 
 
 "Pshaw, Aunt Roxy! how lugubriously you old nurses 
 always talk ! I hope now you hav' n't been filling Mara's 
 head with any such notions people can be frightened into 
 anything." 
 
 " Sally Kittridge, don't be a-talkin' of what you don't 
 know nothin' about ! It stands to reason that a body that 
 was bearin' the heat and burden of the day long before you 
 was born or thought on in this world, should know a thing 
 or two more 'n you. Why, I 've laid you on your stomach 
 and trotted you to trot uf the wind many a day, and I was 
 
390 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 pretty experienced then, and it a'n't likely that I 'm a-goin 
 to take sa'ce from you. Mara Fennel is a gal as has every 
 bit and graib. as much resolution and ambition as you have, 
 c or all you flap your wings and crow so much louder, and 
 she 's one of the close-mouthed sort, that don't make no 
 talk, and she 's been a-bearin* up and bearin' up, and comin 
 to me on the sly for stijengthenin' things. She 's took 
 camomile and orange-peel, and snake-root and boneset, and 
 dajsh-root and dandelion and there ha* n't nothin' done her 
 no good. She told me to-day she couldn't keep up no 
 longer, and I 've been a-tellin' Mis' Fennel and her gran- 
 'ther. I tell you it has been a solemn time ; and if you 're 
 goin' in, don't go in with none o' your light triflin' ways, 
 'cause ' as vinegar upon nitre is he that singeth songs on a 
 heavy heart,' the Scriptur' says." 
 
 " Oh, Miss Roxy, do tell me truly ? " said Sally, much 
 moved. " What do you think is the matter with Mara ? 
 I 've noticed myself that she got tired easy, and that she 
 was short-breathed r- but she seemed so cheerful. Can 
 anything really be the matter ? " 
 
 " It 's consumption, Sally Kittridge," said Miss Roxy, 
 " neither more nor less ; that ar is the long and the short. 
 They 're going to take her over to Portland to see Dr. 
 Wilson *- it won't do no harm, and it won't do no good." 
 
 " You seem to be determined she shall die," said Sally in 
 a tone of pique. 
 
 " Determined, am I ? Is it I that determines that the 
 maple leaves shall fall next October ? Yet I know they will 
 folks can't help knowin' \vuat they know, and shuttin' 
 one's eyes won't alter one'a road. I s'pose you think 'cause 
 you 're young and middlin' good-lookin' that you have feel- 
 in'a and I has n't wel], you 're mistaken, that 's all. 1 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 391 
 
 ion't believe there *s one person in the world that would go 
 farther or do more to save Mara Fennel than I would, - 
 and yet I 've been in the world long enough to sec that 
 livin' a'n't no great shakes neither. Ef one is hopefully 
 prepared in the days of their youth, why they escape a 
 good deal, ef they get took cross-lots into heaven." 
 
 Sally turned away thoughtfully into the house ; there 
 was no one in the kitchen and the tick of the old clock 
 Boundod lonely and sepulchral. She went up-stairs to Mara'fl 
 room ; the door was ajar. Mara was sitting at the open win 
 dow that looked forth toward the ocean, busily engaged in 
 writing. The glow of evening shone on the golden waves 
 of her hair, and tinged the pearly outline of her cheek. 
 Sally noticed the translucent clearness of her complexion, 
 and the deep burning color and the transparency of the 
 little hands, which seemed as if they might transmit the 
 light like Sevres porcelain. She was writing wi*h an ex- 
 pression of tender calm, and sometimes stopping to consult 
 an open letter that Sally knew came from Moses. 
 
 So fair and sweet and serene she looked that a painter 
 might have chosen her for an embodiment of twilight, and 
 one might not be surprised to see a clear star shining out 
 over her forehead. Yet in the tender serenity of the face 
 there dwelt a pathos of expression that spoke of struggles 
 and sufferings past, like the traces of tears on the face of a 
 restful infant that has grieved itself to sleep. 
 
 Sally came softly in on tiptoe, threw her arms around her, 
 and kissed her, with a half laugh, then bursting into tears, 
 lobbed upon her shoulder. 
 
 " Dear Sally, what is the matter ? " said Mara, looking up 
 
 *' Oh, Mara, I just met Miss Roxy, and she told me " 
 
 Sally only sobbed passionately, 
 
392 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 "It is very sad to make all one's friends so unhappy," 
 said Mara, in a soothing voice, stroking Sally's hair. " You 
 don't know how much I have suffered dreading it. Sally, it 
 is a long time since I began to expect and dread and fear. 
 My time of anguish was then then when I first felt that 
 it could be possible that I should not live after all. Ther^ 
 was a long time I dared not even think of it ; I could not 
 even tell such a fear to myself; and I did far more than I 
 felt able to do to convince myself that I was not weak and 
 failing, I have been often to Miss Roxy, and once, when 
 nobody knew it, I went to a doctor in Brunswick, but 
 then I was afraid to tell him half, lest he should say 
 something about me, and it should get out ; and so I 
 went on getting worse and worse, and feeling every day 
 as if I could not keep up, and yet afraid to lie down for feai 
 grandmamma would suspect me. But this morning it was 
 pleasant and bright, and something came over me that said 
 I must tell somebody, and so, as it was cool and pleasant, I 
 walked up to Aunt Roxy's and told her. I thought, you 
 know, that she knew the most, and would feel it the least ; 
 but oh, Sally, she has such a feeling heart, and loves me so j 
 it is strange she should." 
 
 11 Is it? "said Sally, tightening her clasp around Mara's 
 neck ; and then with a hysterical shadow of gayety she said, 
 * I suppose you think that you are such a hobgoblin that 
 nobody could be expected to do that. After all, though, I 
 should have as soon expected roses to bloom in a juniper 
 clump as love from Aunt Roxy." 
 
 " Well, she does love me," said Mara. " No mother could 
 be kinder. Poor thing, she really sobbed and cried when I 
 old her. I was very tired, and she told me she would take 
 care of me, and tell grandpapa and grandmamma, that 
 
THE FEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 393 
 
 had been lying on my heart as such a dreadful thing to do, 
 and she laid me down to rest on her bed, and spoke so lov- 
 ingly to me ! I wish you could have seen her. And while 
 I lay there, I fell into a strange, sweet sort of rest. I can't 
 describe it; but since then everything has been changed. I 
 wish I could tell any one how I saw things then." 
 
 " Do try to tell me, Mara," said Sally, "for I need com- 
 fort too, if there is any to be had." 
 
 " Well, then, I lay on the bed, and the wind drew in from 
 the sea and just lifted the window-curtain, and I could see 
 the sea shining and hear the waves making a pleasant little 
 dash, and then my head seemed to swim. I thought I was 
 walking out by the pleasant shore, and everything seemed 
 so strangely beautiful, and grandpapa and grandmamma 
 were there, and Moses had come home, and you were 
 there, and we were all so happy. And then I felt a sort 
 of strange sense that something was coming some great 
 trial or affliction and I groaned and clung to Moses, and 
 asked him to put his arm around me and hold me. 
 
 " Then it seemed to be not by our sea-shore that this waa 
 happening, but by the Sea of Galilee, just as it tells about it 
 in the Bible, and there were fishermen mending their nets, 
 and men sitting counting their money, and I saw Jesus come 
 walking along, and heard him say to this one and that one, 
 ' Leave all and follow me,' and it seemed that the moment 
 he spoke they did it, and then he came to me, and I felt his 
 eyes in my very soul, and he said, ' Wilt thou leave all and 
 follow me ? ' I cannot tell now what a pain I felt what 
 &n anguish. I wanted to leave all, but my heart felt as if it 
 were tied and woven with a thousand threads, and while I 
 waited he seemed to fade away, and I found myself then 
 *lc/ e and unhappy, wishing that I could, and mourning that 
 17* 
 
894 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 I had not ; and then something shone out warm like the 
 Bun, and I looked up, and he stood there looking pitifully, 
 and he said again just as he did before, * Wilt thou leave all 
 and follow me ? J Every word was so gentle and full of 
 pity, and I looked into his eyes and could not look away j 
 they drew me, they warmed me, and I felt a strange, won- 
 derful sense of his greatness and sweetness. It seemed as 
 if 1 felt within me cord after cord breaking, I felt so free, 
 BO happy ; and I said, ' I will, I will, with all my heart ; ' 
 and I woke then, so happy, so sure of God's love. 
 
 " I saw so clearly how his love is in everything, and these 
 words came into my mind as if an angel had spoken them, 
 ' God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.' Since then 
 I cannot be unhappy. I was so myself only this morning, and 
 now I wonder that any one can have a grief when God is 
 so loving and good, and cares so sweetly for us all. Why, 
 Sally, if I could see Christ and hear Him speak, I could not 
 be more certain that he will make this sorrow such a bless- 
 ing to us all that we shall never be able to thank him enough 
 for it." 
 
 " Oh Mara," said Sally, sighing deeply, while her cheek 
 was wet with tears, " it is beautiful to hear you talk ; but 
 there is one that I am sure will not and cannot feel so." 
 
 " God will care for him," said Mara ; " oh, I am sure of 
 it ; He is love itself, and He values his love in us, and Ho 
 never, never would have brought such a trial, if it had not 
 been the true and only way to our best good. We shall not 
 shed one needless tear. Yes, if God loved us so that H 
 spared not his own Son, he will surely give us all the gooj 
 here that we possibly can have without risking our etornft 
 happiness." 
 
 " You are writing to Moses, now ? " said Sally. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 395 
 
 w Yft<s, I am answering his letter ; it is so full of spirit 
 and life and hope but all hope in this world all, aU 
 earthly as much as if there was no God and no world to 
 come. Sally, perhaps our Father saw that I could not have 
 strength to live with him and keep my faith. I should be 
 drawn by him earthward instead of drawing him heaven- 
 ward; and so this is in mercy to us both." 
 
 " And are you telling him the whole truth, Mara ? " 
 
 " Not all, no," said Mara ; " he could not bear it at once. 
 I only tell him that my health is failing, and that my friends 
 are seriously alarmed, and then I speak as if it- were doubt- 
 ful, in my mind, what the result might be." 
 
 " I don't think you can make him feel as you do. Moses 
 Pennel has a tremendous will, and he never yielded to any 
 one. You bend, Mara, like the little blue harebells, and so 
 the storm goes over you ; but he will stand up against it, 
 and it will wrench and shatter him. I am afraid, instead of 
 making him better, it will only make him bitter and rebel- 
 lious." 
 
 " He has a Father in heaven who knows how to care for 
 him," said Mara. " I am persuaded I feel certain that 
 he will be blessed in the end ; not perhaps in the time and 
 way I should have chosen, but in the end. I have always 
 felt that he was mine ever since he came a little shipwrecked 
 boy to me a little girl. And now I have given him up to 
 his Saviour and my Saviour to his God and my God 
 and I am perfectly at peace. All will be well." 
 
 Mara spoke with a look of such solemn, bright assurance 
 as made her, in the dusky, golden twilight, seem like some 
 lerene angel sent down to comfort, rather than a hapless 
 mortal just wrenched from life and hope. 
 
 Sally rose up and kissed her silently. " Mara," she said, 
 
896 * THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 K I shall come to-morrow to see what I can do for you. I 
 will not interrupt you now. Good-by, dear." 
 
 There are no doubt many, who have followed this history 
 so long as it danced like a gay little boat over sunny waters, 
 and who would have followed it gayly to the end, had it 
 closed with ringing of marriage-bells, who turn from it in- 
 dignantly, when they see that its ..ourse runs through the dark 
 valley. This, they say, is an imposition a trick upon oui 
 feelings. We want to read only stories which end in joy 
 and prosperity. 
 
 But have we then settled it in our own mind that there is 
 no such thing as a fortunate issue in a history which does not 
 terminate in the way of earthly success and good fortune ? 
 Are we Christians or heathen ? It is now eighteen cen- 
 turies since, as we hold, the " highly favored among women " 
 was pronounced to be one whose earthly hopes were all cut 
 off in the blossom, whose noblest and dearest in the morn- 
 ing of his days went down into the shadows of death. 
 
 Was Mary the highly-favored among women, and was 
 Jesus indeed the blessed, or was the angel mistaken ? If 
 they were these, if we are Christians, it ought to be a settled 
 and established habit of our souls to regard something else 
 as prosperity than worldly success and happy marriages. 
 That life is a success which, like the life of Jesus, in its be- 
 ginning, middle, and close, has borne a perfect witness to the 
 truth and the highest form of truth. It is true that God 
 has given to us, and inwoven in our nature a desire for a 
 perfection and completeness made manifest to our senses in 
 this mortal life. To see the daughter bloom into youth and 
 womanhood, the son into manhood, to see them marry and 
 become themselves parents, and gradually ripen and de 
 
TIIE TEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 397 
 
 velop in the maturities of middle life, gradually wear into 
 a sunny autumn, and so be gathered in fulness of time to 
 their fathers, such, one says, is the programme which 
 God has made us to desire ; such the ideal of happiness 
 which he has interwoven with our nerves, and for which our 
 heart and our flesh crieth out ; to which every stroke of a 
 knell is a violence, and every thought of an early death la 
 an abhorrence. 
 
 But the life of Christ and his mother sets the foot on thii 
 lower ideal of happiness, and teaches us that there is some- 
 thing higher. His ministry began with declaring, " Blessed 
 are they that mourn." It has been well said that prosperity 
 was the blessing of the Old Testament, and adversity of the 
 New. Christ came to show us a nobler style of living and 
 bearing ; and so far as he had a personal and earthly life, 
 he buried it as a corner-stone on which to erect a new im- 
 mortal style of architecture. 
 
 Of his own, he had nothing, neither houses, nor lands, nor 
 family ties, nor human hopos, nor earthly sphere of success ; 
 and as a human life, it was all a sacrifice and a defeat. He 
 was rejected by his countrymen, whom the passionate an- 
 guish of his love and the unwearied devotion of his life 
 could not save from an awful doom. He was betrayed by 
 weak friends, prevailed against by slanderers, overwhelmed 
 with an ignominious death in the morning of youth, and his 
 mother stood by his cross, and she was the only womaf 
 whom God ever called highly favored in this world. 
 
 This, then, is the great and perfect ideal of what Goo 
 honors. Christ speaks of himself as bread to "be eaten, 
 bread, simple, humble, unpretending, vitally necessary to 
 human life, made by the bruising and grinding of the 
 grain, unostentatiously having no life or worth of its own 
 
398 TUE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 except as it is absorbed into the life of others and lives ir 
 '.hem. We wished in this history to speak of a class of 
 lives formed on the model of Christ, and like his, obscure 
 and unpretending, like his, seeming to end in darkness and 
 Hefeat, but which yet have this preciousness and value that 
 me dear saints who live them come nearest in their mission 
 to the mission of Jesus. They are made, not for a career 
 and history of their own, but to be bread of life to others. 
 In every household or house have been some of these, and 
 if we look on their lives and deaths with the unbaptized 
 eyes of nature, we shall see only most mournful and unac- 
 countable failure, when, if we could look with the eye of 
 faith, we should see that their living and dying has been 
 bread of life to those they left behind. Fairest of these, and 
 least developed, are the holy innocents who come into our 
 households to smile with the smile of angels, who sleep in 
 our bosoms, and win us with the softness of tender little 
 hands, and pass away like the lamb that was slain before 
 they have ever learned the speech of mortals. Not vain 
 are even these silent lives of Christ's lambs, whom many an 
 earth-bound heart has been roused to follow when the Shep- 
 herd bore them to the higher pastures. And so the daugh- 
 ter who died so early, whose wedding-bells were never rung 
 except in heaven, the son who had no career of ambition 
 or manly duty except among the angels, the patient suf- 
 ferers, whose only lot on earth seemed to be to endure, 
 whose life bled away drop by drop in the shadows of the 
 sick-room all these are among those whose life was like 
 Christ's in that they were made, not for themselves, but to 
 become bread to us. 
 
 It is expedient for us that they go away. Like theii 
 Lord, they come to suffer, and to die ; they take part in hit 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 399 
 
 sacrifice ; their life is incomplete without their death, and 
 not till they are gone away does the Comforter fully come. 
 to us. 
 
 It is a beautiful legend which one sees often represented 
 in the churches of Europe, that when the grave of the 
 mother of Jesus was opened, it was found full of blossoming 
 lilies, fit emblem of the thousand flowers of holy thought 
 and purpose which spring up in our hearts from the memory 
 of our sainted dead. 
 
 Cannot many, who read these lines, bethink them of such 
 rooms that have been the most cheerful places in the family, 
 when the heart of the smitten one seemed the band that 
 bound all the rest together, and have there not been dy- 
 ing hours which shed such a joy and radiance on all around, 
 that it was long before the mourners remembered to mourn ? 
 Is it not a misuse of words to call such a heavenly transla- 
 tion death ? and to call most things that are lived out on this 
 earth life 1 
 
400 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 IT is now about a month after the conversation which W 
 have recorded, and during that time the process which was 
 to loose from this present life had been going on in Mara 
 with a soft, insensible, but steady power. When she ceased 
 to make efforts beyond her strength, and allowed herself 
 that languor and repose which nature claimed, all around her 
 soon became aware how her strength was failing ; and yet 
 a cheerful repose seemed to hallow the atmosphere around 
 her. The sight of her every day in family worship, sitting 
 by in such tender tranquillity, with such a smile on her face, 
 seemed like a present inspiration. And though the aged pair 
 knew that she was no more for this world, yet she was com- 
 forting and inspiring to their view as the angel who of old 
 rolled back the stone from the sepulchre and sat upon it. 
 They saw in her eyes, not death, but the solemn victory 
 which Christ gives over death. 
 
 Bunyan has no more lovely poem than the image he 
 gives of that land of pleasant waiting which borders the 
 river of death, where the chosen of the Lord repose, while 
 shining messengers, constantly passing and repassing, bear 
 tidings from the celestial shore, opening a way between 
 earth and heaven. It was so, that through the very thought 
 of Mara an influence of tenderness and tranquillity passed 
 through the whole neighborhood, keeping hearts fresh with 
 sympathy, and causing thought and conversation to rest on 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 401 
 
 those bright mysteries of eternal joy which were reflected 
 on her face. 
 
 Sally Kittridge was almost a constant inmate of the brown 
 house, ever ready in watching and waiting ; and one only 
 needed to mark the expression of her face to feel that a 
 holy charm was silently working upon her higher and spir- 
 itual nature. Those great, dark, sparkling eyes that once 
 seemed to express only the brightness of animal vivacity, 
 and glittered like a brook in unsympathetic gayety, had in 
 them now mysterious depths, and tender, fleeting shadows, 
 and the very tone of her voice had a subdued tremor. The 
 capricious elf, the tricksy sprite, was melting away in the 
 immortal soul, and the deep pathetic power of a noble heart 
 was being born. Some influence sprung of sorrow is neces- 
 sary always to perfect beauty in womanly nature. We feel 
 its absence in many whose sparkling wit and high spirits 
 give grace and vivacity to life, but in whom we vainly sf.ek 
 for some spot of quiet tenderness and sympathetic repose. 
 Sally was, ignorantiy to herself, changing in the expression 
 of her face and the tone of her character, as she ministered 
 in the daily wants which sickness brings in a simple house- 
 hold. 
 
 For the rest of the neighborhood, the shelves and larder 
 of Mrs. Fennel were constantly crowded with the tributes 
 which one or another sent in for the invalid. There was jelly 
 of Iceland moss sent across by Miss Emily, and brought by 
 Mr. Sewell, whose calls were almost daily. There were 
 custards and preserves, and e^erv form of cake and other 
 confections in which the house-keeping talent of the neigh- 
 bors delighted, and which were sent in under the old 
 superstition that sick people must be kept eating at all 
 oazards. 
 
402 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 At church, Sunday after Sunday, the simple note re- 
 quested the prayers of the church and congregation for 
 Mara Lincoln, who was, as the note phrased it, drawing 
 near her end, that she and all concerned might be prepared 
 for the great and last change. One familiar with New 
 England customs must have remembered with what a plain- 
 tive power the reading of such a note, from Sunday to Sun- 
 day, has drawn the thoughts and sympathies of a congrega- 
 tion to some chamber of sickness ; and in a village church, 
 where every individual is known from childhood to every 
 other, the power of this simple custom is still greater. 
 
 Then the prayers of the minister would dwell on the 
 case, and thanks would be rendered to God for the great 
 light and peace with which he had deigned to visit his 
 young handmaid ; and then would follow a prayer that when 
 these sad tidings should reach a distant friend who had 
 gone down to do business on the great waters, they might 
 be sanctified to his spiritual and everlasting good. Then 
 on Sunday noons, as the people ate their dinners together 
 in a room adjoining the church, all that she said and did 
 was talked over and over, how quickly she had gained 
 the victory of submission, the peace of a will united with 
 God's, mixed with harmless gossip of the sick chamber, 
 as to what she ate and how she slept, and who had sent 
 her gruel with raisins in it, and who jelly with wine, and 
 how she had praised this and eaten that twice with a relish, 
 but how the other had seemed to disagree with her. There- 
 after would come scraps of nursing information, recipei 
 against coughing, specifics against short breath, speculations 
 about watchers, how soon she would need them, and long 
 legends of other death-beds where the fear of death had 
 been slain by the power of an endless life. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 403 
 
 Yet through all the gossip, and through ranch that might 
 aave been called at other times commonplace cant of re- 
 ligion, there was spread a tender earnestness, and the whole 
 air seemed to be enchanted with the fragrance of that fading 
 rose. Each one spoke more gently, more lovingly to ea^h, 
 for the thought of her. 
 
 It was now a bright September morning, and the earlj 
 frosts had changed the maples in the pine- woods to scarlet, 
 and touched the white birches with gold, when one morning 
 Miss Roxy presented herself at an early hour at Captain 
 Kittridge's. 
 
 They were at breakfast, and Sally was dispensing the tea 
 at the head of the table, Mrs. Kittridge having been pre- 
 vailed on to abdicate in her favor. 
 
 " It is such a fine morning," she said, looking out at the 
 window, which showed a waveless expanse of ocean. " I 
 do hope Mara has had a good night." 
 
 " I 'm a-goin' to make her some jelly this very forenoon," 
 said Mrs. Kittridge. " Aunt Roxy was a-tellin' me yester- 
 day that she was a-goin' down to stay at the house regular, 
 for she needed so much done now." 
 
 " It *s 'most an amazin' thing we don't hear from Moses 
 Fennel," said Captain Kittridge. " If he don't make haste 
 he may never see her." 
 
 " There 's Aunt Roxy at this minute," said Sally. 
 
 In truth the door opened at this moment, and Aunt Roxy 
 entered with a little blue band-box and a bundle tied up in 
 a checked handkerchief. 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Roxy," said Mrs. Kittridge, " you are on your 
 ?ray, are you ? Do sit down, right here, and get a cup of 
 Btrong tea." 
 
404 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND- 
 
 " Thank you," said Aunt Roxy, " but Ruey gave me a 
 humming cup before I came away." 
 
 " Aunt Roxy, have they heard anything from Moses ? " 
 said the Captain. 
 
 " No, father, I know they have n't," said Sally. " Mara 
 has written to him and so has Mr. Sewell, but it is very 
 uncertain whether he ever got the letters." 
 
 " It 's most time to be a-lookin' for him home," said 
 the Captain. " I should n't be surprised to see him any 
 day." 
 
 At this moment Sally, who sat where she could see from 
 the window, gave a sudden start and a half scream, and ris- 
 ing from the table, darted first to the window and then to 
 the door, whence she rushed out eagerly. 
 
 " Well, what now ? " said the Captain. 
 
 " I am sure I don't know what 's come over her," said 
 Mrs. Kittridge, rising to look out. 
 
 " Why, Aunt Roxy, do look ; I believe to my soul that 
 ar 's Moses Fennel ! " 
 
 And so it was. He met Sally, as she ran out, with a 
 gloomy brow and scarcely a look even of recognition ; but 
 he seized her hand and wrung it in the stress of his emotion 
 so that she almost screamed with the pain. 
 
 " Tell me, Sally," he said, " tell me the truth. I dared 
 not go home without I knew. Those gossiping, lying re- 
 ports are always exaggerated. They are dreadful exagger- 
 ations, they frighten a sick person into the grave ; but 
 you have good sense and a hopeful, cheerful temper, you 
 must see and know how things are. Mara is not so very 
 _. very " He held Sally's hand and looked at her 
 with a burning eagerness. " Say, what do you think of 
 her?" 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 405 
 
 " We all think that we cannot long keep her with us," 
 laid Sally. " And oh, Moses, I am so glad you have 
 come." 
 
 " It 's false, it must be false," he said, violently ; " noth- 
 ing is more deceptive than these ideas that doctors and 
 nurses pile on when a sensitive person is going down a 
 little. I know Mara ; everything depends on the mine 
 with her. I shall wake her up out of this dream. She 
 is not to die. She shall not die, I come to save her." 
 
 " Oh, if you could ! " said Sally mournfully. 
 
 " It cannot be ; it is not to be," he said again, as if to 
 convince himself. " No such thing is to be thought of. 
 Tell me, Sally, have you tried to keep up the cheerful side 
 of things to her, have you ? " 
 
 " Oh, you cannot tell, Moses, how it is, unless you see 
 her. She is cheerful, happy ; the only really joyous one 
 among us." 
 
 " Cheerful ! joyous ! happy ! She does not believe, then, 
 these frightful things ? I thought she would keep up ; she 
 is a brave little thing." 
 
 " No, Moses, she does \ elieve. She has given up all 
 hope of life, all wish to live ; and oh, she is so lovely, 
 so sweet, so dear." 
 
 Sally covered her face with her hands and sobbed. Moses 
 stood still, looking at her a moment in a confused way, and 
 then he answered, 
 
 "Come, get your bonnet, Sally, and go with me. You 
 must go in and tell them; tell her that I am come, you 
 know." 
 
 " Yes, I will," said Sally, as she ran quickly back to the 
 house. 
 
 Moses stood listlessly looking after her. A moment after 
 
406 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 she came out of the door again, and Miss Roxy behind 
 Sally hurried up to Moses. 
 
 " Where 's that black old raven going ? " said Moses, in 
 a low voice, looking back on Miss Roxy, who stood on the 
 steps after them. 
 
 " What, Aunt Roxy ? " said Sally ; " why, she 's going up 
 to nurse Mara, and take care of her. Mrs. Pennel is so old 
 and infirm she needs somebody to depend on." 
 
 " I can't bear her," said Moses. " I always think of sick 
 rooms and coffins and a stifling smell of camphor when 1 
 see her. I never could endure her. She 's an old harpy 
 going to carry off my dove." 
 
 " Now, Moses, you must not talk so. She loves Mara 
 dearly, the poor old soul, and Mara loves her, and there is 
 LIO earthly thing she would not do for her. And she knows 
 what to do for sickness better than you or I. I have found 
 out one thing, that it is n't mere love and good-will that is 
 needed in a sick-room ; it needs knowledge and experience." 
 
 Moses assented in gloomy silence, and they walked on 
 together the way that they had so often taken laughing and 
 chatting. When they came within sight of the house, Moses 
 said, 
 
 "Here she came running to meet us; do you remem- 
 ber?" 
 
 "Yes," said Sally. 
 
 " I was never half worthy of her. I never said half what 
 I ought to," he added. " She must live ! I must have one 
 more chance." 
 
 When they came up to the house, Zephaniah Pennel was 
 sitting in the door, with his gray head bent over the leaves 
 of the great family Bible. 
 
 He rose up at their coming, and with that suppression of 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 407 
 
 All external signs of feeling for which the New Englander is 
 remarkable, simply shook the hand of Moses, saying, 
 
 " Well, my boy, we are glad you have come." 
 
 Mrs. Fennel, who was busied in some domestic work in 
 the back part of the kitchen, turned away and hid her face 
 in her apron when she saw him. There fell a great silence 
 among them, in the midst of which the old clock ticked loud- 
 ly and importunately, like the inevitable approach of fate. 
 
 " I will go up and see her, and get her ready," said Sally, 
 ir. a whisper to Moses. " I '11 come and call you." 
 
 Moses sat down and looked around on the old familiar scene ; 
 there was the great fireplace where, in their childish days, 
 they had sat together winter nights, her fair, spiritual face 
 enlivened by the blaze, while she knit and looked thought- 
 fully into the coals ; there she had played checkers, or fox 
 and geese, with him ; or studied with him the Latin lessons ; 
 or sat by, grave and thoughtful, hemming his toy-ship sails, 
 while he cut the moulds for his anchors, or tried experiments 
 on pulleys ; and in all these years he could not remember 
 one selfish action, one unlovely word, and he thought 
 to himself, "I hoped to possess this angel as a mortal 
 wife I Grod forgive my presumption." 
 
108 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 SALLY found Mara sitting in an easy-chair that had been 
 gent to her by the provident love of Miss Emily. It was 
 wheeled in front of her room window, from whence she could 
 look out upon the wide expanse of the ocean. It was a 
 gloriously bright, calm morning, and the water lay clear and 
 still, with scarce a ripple, to the far distant pearly horizon. 
 She seemed to be looking at it in a kind of calm ecstasy, 
 and murmuring the words of a hymn : 
 
 " Nor wreck nor ruin there is seen, 
 
 There not a wave of trouble rolls, 
 But the bright rainbow round the throne 
 Peals endless peace to all their souls." 
 
 Sally came softly behind her on tiptoe to kiss her. " Good- 
 morning, dear, how do you find yourself? " 
 
 " Quite well," was the answer. 
 
 " Mara, is not there anything you want ? " 
 
 " There might be many things ; but His will is mine." 
 
 " You want to see Moses ? " 
 
 u Very much ; but I shall see him as soon as it is best for 
 us both." 
 
 "Mara, he is come." 
 
 The quick blood flushed over the pale, transparent face as 
 u virgin glacier flushes at sunrise, and she looked up eagerly 
 Come ! " 
 
 " Yes, he is below-stairs wanting to see you." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 409 
 
 She seemed about to speak eagerly, and then checked 
 herself and mused a moment. " Poor, poor boy ! " she 
 said. " Yes, Sally, let him come at once." 
 
 There were a few dazzling, dreamy minutes when Moses 
 first held lhat frail form in his arms, which but for its tender, 
 mortal warmth, might have seemed to him a spirit. It waa 
 no spirit, but a woman whose heart he could feel thrilling 
 against his own ; who seemed to him like some frail, flutter- 
 ing bird; but somehow, as he looked into her clear, trans- 
 parent face, and pressed her thin little hands in his, the con- 
 viction stole over him overpoweringly that she was indeed 
 fading away and going from him, drawn from him by that 
 mysterious, irresistible power against which human strength, 
 even in the strongest, has no chance. 
 
 It is dreadful to a strong man who has felt the influence 
 of his strength, who has always been ready with a re- 
 source for every emergency, and a weapon for every battle, 
 
 when first he meets that mighty invisible power by which 
 a beloved life a life he would give his own blood to save 
 
 melts and dissolves like smoke before his eyes. 
 
 " Oh, Mara, Mara," he groaned, " this is too dreadful, too 
 cruel ; it is cruel" 
 
 "You will think so at first, but not always," she said, 
 soothingly. " You will live to see a joy come out of this 
 Borrow." 
 
 " Never, Mara, never. I cannot believe that kind of talk. 
 I see no love, no mercy in it. Of course, if there is any 
 life after death you will be happy ; if there is a heaven 
 you will be there ; but can tnis dim, unsubstantial, cloudy 
 prospect make you happy in leaving me and giving up one's 
 lover ? Oh, Mara, you cannot love as I do, or you could 
 
 not" 
 
 18 
 
410 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Moses, I have suffered, oh, very, very much. It waa 
 many months ago when I first thought that I must give 
 everything up, when I thought that we must part ; but 
 Christ helped me ; he showed me his wonderful love, the 
 love that surrounds us all our life, that follows us in all our 
 wanderings, and sustains us in all our weaknesses, and 
 then I felt that whatever He wills for us is in love ; oh, be- 
 lieve it, believe it for my sake, for your own." 
 
 * Oh, I cannot, I cannot," said Moses ; but as he looked at 
 the bright, pale face, and felt how the tempest of his feelings 
 shook the frail form, he checked himself. " I do wrong to 
 agitate you so, Mara. I will try to be calm." 
 
 " And to pray ? " she said, beseechingly. 
 
 He shut his lips in gloomy silence. 
 
 " Promise me," she said. 
 
 " I have prayed ever since I got your first letter, and I 
 see it does no good," he answered. " Our prayers cannot 
 alter fate." 
 
 " Fate ! there is no fate," she answered ; " there is a 
 strong and loving Father who guides the way, though we 
 know it not. We cannot resist His will ; but it is all love, 
 pure, pure love." 
 
 At this moment Sally came softly into the room. A gen- 
 tle air of womanly authority seemed to express itself in that 
 once gay and giddy face, at which Moses, in the midst of his 
 misery, marvelled. 
 
 " You must not stay any longer now," she said ; " it would 
 be too much for her strength ; this is enough for this morn- 
 ing." 
 
 Moses turned away, and silently left th-i room, and Sally 
 said to Mara, 
 
 " You must lie down now and rest." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAX1X 411 
 
 * Sally," said Mara, " promise me one thing." 
 
 " Well, Mara ; of course I will." 
 
 " Promise to love him and care for him when I am gone ; 
 Le will be so lonely." 
 
 " I will do all I can, Mara," said Sally, soothingly ; " so 
 now you must take a little wine and lie down. You know 
 what you have so often said, that all will yet be well with 
 him." 
 
 " Oh, I know it, I am sure," said Mara, " but oh, his sor- 
 row shook my very heart." 
 
 " You must not talk another word about it," said Sally, 
 peremptorily. " Do you know Aunt Roxy is coming to see 
 you ? I see her out of the window this very moment." 
 
 And Sally assisted to lay her friend on the bed, and then, 
 administering a stimulant, she drew down the curtains, and, 
 sitting beside her, began repeating, in a soft, monotonouf 
 tone, the words of a favorite hymn : 
 
 "The Lord my shepherd is, 
 I shall be well supplied; 
 Since He is mine, and I am His, 
 What can I want beside? " 
 
 Before she had finished, Mara was asleep. 
 
412 THE PEARL OF OKE'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 MOSES came down from the chamber of Mara in a tem 
 pest of contending emotions. He had all that constitutional 
 horror of death and the spiritual world, which is an attribute 
 of some particularly strong and well-endowed physical na- 
 tures, and he had all that instinctive resistance of the will 
 which such natures offer to anything which strikes athwart 
 their cherished hopes and plans. 
 
 To be wrenched suddenly from the sphere of an earthly 
 life and made to confront the unclosed doors of a spiritual 
 world on the behalf of the one dearest to him, was to him a 
 dreary horror uncheered by one filial belief in God. He 
 felt, furthermore, that blind animal irritation which assails 
 one under a sudden blow, whether of the body or of the soul, 
 an anguish of resistance, a vague blind anger. 
 
 Mr. Sewell was sitting in the kitchen, he had called to 
 see Mara, and waited for the close of the interview above. 
 He rose and offered his hand to Moses, who took it in 
 gloomy silence, without a smile or word. 
 
 " ' My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord/ " 
 said Mr. Sewell. 
 
 " I cannot bear that sort of thing," said Moses abruptly, 
 mid almost fiercely. " I beg your pardon, sir, but it irri- 
 tates me." 
 
 " Do you not believe that afflictions are sent for our in* 
 provement ? " said Mr. Sewell 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 413 
 
 * No ! how can I ! What improvement will there be to 
 me in taking from me the angel who guided me to all good > 
 and kept me from all evil ; the one pure motive and holy in- 
 fluence of my life ? If you call this the chastening of a lov- 
 ing father, I must say it looks more to me like the caprice 
 of an evil spirit." 
 
 " Had you ever thanked the God of your life for this gift, 
 or felt your dependence on him to keep it ? Have you not 
 blindly idolized the creature and forgotten Him who gave 
 it?" said Mr. Sewell. 
 
 Moses was silent a moment. 
 
 " I cannot believe there is a God," he said. " Since this 
 fear came on me I have prayed, yes, and humbled myself; 
 for I know I have not always been what I ought. I prom- 
 ised if he would grant me this one thing, I would seek him 
 in future; but it did no good, it's of no use to pray. I 
 would have been good in this way, if she might be spared, 
 and I cannot in any other." 
 
 " My son, our Lord and Master will have no such condi- 
 tions from us," said Mr. Sewell. " We must submit uncon- 
 ditionally. She has done it, and her peace is as firm as the 
 everlasting hills. God's will is a great current that flows 
 in spite of us ; if we go with it, it carries us to endless 
 est, if we resist, we only wear our lives out in useless 
 struggles." 
 
 Moses stood a moment in silence, and then, turning away 
 without a word, hurried from the house. He strode along the 
 high rocky bluff, through tangled junipers and pine thick- 
 ets, till he came above the rocky cove which had been his 
 favorite retreat on so many occasions. He swung himself 
 down over the cliffs into the grotto, where, shut in by the 
 aigh tide ; he felt himself alone. There he had read Mr 
 
414 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 Sewell's letter, and dreamed vain dreams of wealth and 
 worldly success, now all to him so void. He felt to-day, 
 as he sat there and watched the ships go by, how utterly 
 nothing all the wealth in the world was, in the loss of thai 
 one heart. Unconsciously, even to himself, sorrow was do- 
 ing her ennobling ministry within him, melting off in her 
 fierce fires trivial ambitions and low desires, and making 
 him feel the sole worth and value of love. That which in 
 other days had seemed only as one good thing among many 
 now seemed the only thing in life. And he who has learned 
 the paramount value of love has taken one step from an 
 earthly to a spiritual existence. 
 
 But as he lay there on the pebbly shore, hour after hour 
 glided by, his whole past life lived itself over to his eye ; 
 he saw a thousand actions, he heard a thousand words, 
 whose beauty and significance never came to him till now. 
 And alas ! he saw so many when, on his part, the respon- 
 sive word that should have been spoken, and the deed that 
 should have been done, was forever wanting. He had all his 
 life carried within him a vague consciousness that he had not 
 been to Mara what he should have been, but he had hoped 
 to make amends for all in that future which lay before him, 
 that future now, alas! dissolving and fading away like the 
 white cloud-islands which the wind was drifting from the 
 sky. A roice seemed saying in his ears, " Ye know that 
 when he would have inherited a blessing he was rejected ; 
 for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it 
 carefully with tears." Something that he had never felt 
 before struck him as appalling in the awful fixedness of 
 all past deeds and words, the unkind words once said, 
 which no tears could unsay, the kind ones suppressed, to 
 which u< agony of wishfulness could give a past reality 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 415 
 
 There were particular times in their past history that he re* 
 membered so vividly, when he saw her so clearly, doing 
 Borne little thing for him, and shyly watching for the word 
 of acknowledgment, which he did not give. Some wilful 
 wayward demon withheld him at the moment, and the light 
 on the little wishful face slowly faded. True, all had been & 
 thousand times forgiven and forgotten between them, but it 
 is the ministry of these great vital hours of sorrow to 
 teach us that nothing in the soul's history ever dies or is 
 forgotten, and when the beloved one lies stricken and ready 
 to pass away, comes the judgment-day of love, and all the 
 dead moments of the past arise and live again. 
 
 He lay there musing and dreaming till the sun grew low 
 in the afternoon sky, and the tide that isolated the little 
 grotto had gone far out into the ocean, leaving long low reefs 
 of sunken rocks, all matted and tangled with the yellow 
 hair of the sea-weed, with little crystal pools of salt water 
 between. He heard the sound of approaching footsteps, 
 and Captain Kittridge came slowly picking his way round 
 among the shingle and pebbles. 
 
 Wai' now, I thought I 'd find ye here ! " he said. I 
 kind o' thought I wanted to see ye, ye see." 
 
 Moses looked up half moody, half astonished, while the 
 Captain seated himself upon a fragment of rock and began 
 brushing the knees of his trousers industriously, until soon 
 I he tears rained down from his eyes upon his dry withered 
 hands 
 
 " Wai' now ye see, I can't help it, darned if I can j 
 knowed her ever since she 'a that high. She 's done me 
 good, she has. Mis' Kittridge has been pretty faithful. 
 [ 've had folks here and there talk to me consid'able, but 
 Lord ble^s you, I never had nothin' go to roy heart like 
 
416 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 this 'ere Why to look on her there couldn't nobody 
 
 doubt but what there was somethin' in religion. You never 
 knew half what she did for you, Moses Fennel, you did n't 
 know that the night you was off down to the long cove with 
 Skipper Atkinson, that 'ere blessed child was a-follerin' you, 
 but she was, and she come to me next day to get me to do 
 somethin' for you. That was how your grand'ther and I 
 got ye off to sea so quick, and she such a little thing then ; 
 that ar child was the savin* of ye, Moses Fennel." Moses 
 hid his head in his hands with a sort of groan. 
 
 " Wai', wal'," said the Captain, " I don't wonder now ye 
 feel so, I don't see how ye can stan' it no ways only 
 
 by thinkin' o' where she 's goin' to Them ar bells in 
 
 the Celestial City must all be a-ringin' for her, there '11 
 be joy that side o' the river I reckon when she gets acrost. 
 If she 'd jest leave me a hem o' her garment to get in by, I 'd 
 be glad ; but she was one o' the sort that was jest made to 
 go to heaven. She only stopped a few days in our world, 
 like the robins when they 's goin' South ; but there '11 be a 
 good many fust and last that'll get into the kingdom for 
 love of her. She never said much to me, but she kind o' 
 drew me. Ef ever I should get in there, it '11 be she led 
 me. But come, now, Moses, ye ought n't fur to be a-set- 
 tin' here catchin' cold jest come round to ciir house and 
 let Sally gin you a warm cup o' tea do come, now." 
 
 " Thank you, Captain," said Moses, " but I will go home ; 
 I must see her again to-night." 
 
 " Wal', don't let her see you grieve too much, ye know ; 
 we must be a little sort o' manly, ye know, 'cause her body 's 
 *eak, if her heart is strong." 
 
 Now Moses was in a mood of dry, proud, fierce, self-con- 
 suming sorrow, least likely to open his heart or seek syra 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 417 
 
 pathy from any one ; and no friend or acquaintance would 
 probably have dared to intrude on his grief. But there are 
 moods of the mind which cannot be touched or handled by 
 one on an equal level with us that yield at once to the 
 sympathy of something below. A dog who comes with his 
 great honest, sorrowful face and lays his mute paw of inquiry 
 on your knee, will sometimes open floodgates of softer feel- 
 ing, that have remained closed to every human touch ; 
 the dumb simplicity and ignorance of his sympathy makes 
 it irresistible. In like manner the downright grief of the 
 good-natured old Captain, and the child-like ignorance with 
 which he ventured upon a ministry of consolation from which 
 a more cultivated person would have shrunk away, were ir- 
 resistibly touching. Moses grasped the dry, withered hand 
 and said, " Thank you, thank you, Captain Kittridge ; you 're 
 a true friend." 
 
 " Wai', I be, that 's a fact, Moses Lord bless me, I a'n't 
 no great I a'n't nobody I 'm jest an old last-year's mul- 
 lein-stalk in the Lord's vineyard but that 'ere blessed lit- 
 tle thing allers had a good word for me. She gave me a 
 hymn-book and marked some hymns in it, and read 'em to 
 me herself, and her voice was jest as sweet as the sea of a 
 warm evening. Them hymns come to me kind o' powerful 
 when I 'in at my work planin' and sawin'. Mis' Kittridge, 
 ghe allers talks to me as ef I was a terrible sinner ; and I 
 suppose I be, but this 'ere blessed child, she's so kind o' good 
 and innocent, she thinks I 'm good ; kind o' takes it for 
 granted I 'm one o' the Lord's people, ye know. It kind o' 
 makes me want to be, ye know." 
 
 The Captain here produced from his coat-pocket a much 
 worn hymn-book, and showed Moses where leaves were 
 <olded down. " Now here 's this 'ere," he said ; " you get 
 18* 
 
418 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 her to say it to you," he added, pointing to the well-known 
 sacred idyl which has refreshed so many hearts : 
 
 " There is a land of pure delight 
 Where saints immortal reign; 
 Eternal day excludes the night, 
 And pleasures banish pain. 
 
 There everlasting spring abides, 
 
 And never-fading flowers; 
 Death like a narrow sea divides 
 
 This happy land from ours." 
 
 *' Now that ar beats everything," said the Captain, 
 " and we must kind o' think of it for her, 'cause she 'a 
 goin' to see all that, and ef it 's our loss it 's her gain, ye 
 know." 
 
 " I know," said Moses ; " our grief is selfish." 
 
 " Jest so. Wai', we 're selfish critters, we be," said the 
 Captain ; " but arter all 't a'n't as ef we was heathen and 
 did n't know where they was a-goin' to. "VVe jest ought to 
 be a-lookin' about and tryin' to foller 'em, ye know." 
 
 " Yes, yes, I do know," said Moses ; " it 's easy to say, bul 
 hard to do." 
 
 " But law, man, she prays for you ; she did years and 
 years ago, when you was a boy and she a girl. You know 
 it tells in the Revelations how the angels has golden viaU 
 full of odors which are the prayers of saints. I tell ye 
 Moses, you ought to get into heaven, if no one else does. 1 
 expect you are pretty well known among the angels by this 
 time. I tell ye what 't is, Moses, fellers think it a mighty 
 pretty thing to be a-steppin' high, and a-sayin' they don't 
 believe the Bible, and all that ar, so long as the world goes 
 veil. This 'ere old Bible why it 's jest like yer mother 
 > ye rove and ramble, and cut up round the world without' 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 419 
 
 her a spell, and mebbe think the old woman a'n't so fashion- 
 able as some ; but when sickness and sorrow comes, why, 
 there a'n't nothin' else to go back to. Is there, now ? " 
 
 Moses did not answer, but he shook the hand of the Cap- 
 tain and turned away. 
 
42 J THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 TUE setting sun gleamed in at the window oi Mara'a 
 chamber, tinted with rose and violet hues from a great cloud- 
 castle that lay upon the smooth ocean over against the win- 
 dow. Mara was lying upon the bed, but she raised herself 
 upon her elbow to look out. 
 
 " Dear Aunt Roxy," she said, u raise me up and put the 
 pillows behind me, so that I can see out it is splendid." 
 
 Aunt Roxy came and arranged the pillows, and lifted the 
 girl with her long, strong arms, then stooping over her a 
 moment she finished her arrangements by softly smoothing 
 the hair from her forehead with a caressing movement most 
 unlike her usual precise business-like proceedings. 
 
 " I love you, Aunt Roxy," said Mara, looking up with a 
 tmile. 
 
 Aunt Roxy made a strange wry face, which caused her 
 to look harder than usual. She was choked with tender- 
 ness, and had only this uncomely way of showing it. 
 
 " Law now, Mara, I don't see how ye can ; I a'n't nothin* 
 but an old burdock-bush ; love a'n't for me." 
 
 " Yes it is too," said Mara, drawing her down and kissing 
 her withered cheek, " and you sha'n't call yourself an old 
 burdock. God sees that you are beautiful, and in the res- 
 urrection everybody will see it." 
 
 " I was always homely as an owl," said Miss Roxy, un- 
 tonsciously speaking out what had lain like a stone at tlw 
 
THE PEARL OF GRITS ISLAND. 42? 
 
 bottom of even her sensible heart. " I always had sense to 
 know it, and knew my sphere. Homely folks would like to 
 say pretty things, and to have pretty things said to them, but 
 they never do. I made up my mind pretty early that my 
 part in the vineyard was to have hard work and no posies." 
 
 " Well, you will have all the more in heaven ; I love 
 you dearly, and I like your looks, too. You look kind and 
 true and good, and that's beauty in the country where we 
 are going." 
 
 Miss Roxy sprang up quickly from the bed, and turning 
 her back began to arrange the bottles on the table with great 
 zeal. 
 
 " Has Moses come in yet ? " said Mara. 
 
 " No, there Vn't nobody seen a thing of him since he 
 went out this morning." 
 
 " Poor boy ! " said Mara, " it is too hard upon him. Aunt 
 Roxy, please pick some roses off the bush from under the 
 window and put in the vases ; let 's have the room as sweet 
 and cheerful as we can. I hope God will let me live long 
 enough to comfort him. It is not so very terrible, if one 
 would only think so, to cross that river. All looks so bright 
 to me now that I have forgotten how sorrow seemed. Poor 
 Moses ! he will have a hard struggle, but he will get the 
 victory, too. I am very weak to-night, but to-morrow I 
 shall feel better, and I shall sit up, and perhaps I can paint 
 a little on that flower I was doing for him. We will not 
 have things look sickly or deathly. There, Aunt Roxy, he 
 has come in ; I hear his step." 
 
 " I did n't hear it," said Mi*s Ro'xy, surprised at the acute 
 senses which sickness had etherealized to an almost spirit- 
 like intensity. Shall I call him ? " 
 
422 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 " Yes, do,' said Mara. " He can sit with me a little 
 while to-night." 
 
 The light in the room was a strange dusky mingling of 
 gold and gloom, when Moses stole softly in. The great 
 cloud-castle that a little while since had glowed like living 
 gold from turret and battlement, now dim, changed for the 
 most part to a sombre gray, enlivened with a dull glow of 
 crimson ; but there was still a golden light where the sun 
 had sunk into the sea. Moses saw the little thin hand 
 stretched out to him. 
 
 " Sit down," she said ; " it has been such a beautiful sun- 
 set. Did you notice it ? " 
 
 He sat down by the bed, leaning his forehead on his hand, 
 but saying nothing 
 
 She drew her fingers through his dark hair. "lam so 
 glad to see you," she said. " It is such a comfort to me that 
 you have come ; and I hope it will be to you. You know I 
 shall be better to-morrow than I am to-night, and I hope we 
 shall have some pleasant days together yet. We must n't 
 reject what little we may have, because it cannot be more." 
 
 " Oh, Mara," said Moses, " I would give my life, if I could 
 take back the past. I have never been worthy of you ; 
 never knew your worth ; never made you happy. You al 
 ways lived for me, and I lived for myself. I deserve to 
 lose you, but it is none the less bitter." 
 
 " Don't say lose. Why must you ? I cannot think of 
 losing you. I know I shall not God has given you to me. 
 You will come to me and be mine at last. I feel sure of it.' 
 
 " You don't know me," said Moses. 
 
 " Christ does, though," she said ; " and He has promised to 
 care for you. Yes, you will live to see many flowers grout 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 423 
 
 out of my grave. You cannot think so now ; but it will be 
 so believe me." 
 
 " Mara,'* said Moses, " I never lived through such a day 
 as this. It seems as if every moment of my life had 
 been passing before me, and every moment of yours. I 
 have seen how true and loving in thought and word and deed 
 you have been, and I have been doing nothing but take 
 take. You have given love as the skies give rain, and I 
 have drunk it up like the hot dusty earth." 
 
 Mara knew in her own heart that this was all true, and 
 she was too real to use any of the terms of affected humili- 
 ation which many think a kind of spiritual court language. 
 She looked at him and answered, " Moses, I always knew I 
 loved most. It was my nature ; God gave it to me, and it 
 was a gift for which I give Him thanks not a merit. I 
 knew you had a larger, wider nature than mine, a wider 
 sphere to live in, and that you could not live in your heart 
 as I did. Mine was all thought and feeling, and the narrow 
 little duties of this little home. Yours went all round the 
 world." 
 
 "But, oh Mara oh, my angel ! to think I should lose 
 you when I am just beginning to know your worth. I al- 
 ways had a sort of superstitious feeling, a sacred presenti- 
 ment about you, that my spiritual life, if ever I had any, 
 would come through you. It seemed if there ever was such 
 a thing as God's providence, which some folks believe in, it 
 was in leading me to you, and giving you to me. And now, 
 to have all lashed all destroyed It makes me feel as 
 if all was blind chance ; no guiding God ; for if He wanted 
 me to be good, He would spare you." 
 
 Mara lay with her large eyes fixed on the now faded sky. 
 The dusky shadows had dropped like a black crape veil 
 
424 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 around her pale face. In a few moments she repeated to 
 herself, as if she were musing upon them, those mysterious 
 words of Him who liveth and was dead, " Except a corn of 
 wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; if it die, 
 it bringeth forth much fruit." 
 
 " Moses," she said, " for all I know you have loved me 
 dearly, yet I have felt that in #11 that was deepest and dear- 
 est to me, I was alone. You did not come near to me, nor 
 touch me where I feel most deeply. If I had lived to be 
 your wife, I cannot say but this distance in our spiritual 
 nature might have widened. You know, what we live with 
 we get used to; it grows an old story. Your love to me 
 might have grown old and worn out. If we lived together 
 in the commonplace toils of life, you would see only a poor 
 threadbare wife. I might have lost what little charm I ever 
 had for you ; but I feel that if I die, this will not be. There 
 is something sacred and beautiful in death ; and I may have 
 more power over you, when I seem to be gone, than I should 
 have had living." 
 
 " Oh, Mara, Mara, don't say that." 
 
 " Dear Moses, it is so. Think how many lovers marry, 
 and how few lovers are left in middle life ; and how few love 
 and reverence living friends as they do the dead. There 
 are only a very few to whom it is given to do that." 
 
 Something in the heart of Moses told him that this was 
 true. In this one day the sacred revealing light of ap- 
 proaching death he had seen more of the real spiritual 
 beauty and significance of Mara's life than in years before, 
 and felt upspringing in his heart, from the deep pathetic 
 influence of the approaching spiritual world, a new and 
 stronger power of loving. It may he that it is not merely a 
 perception of love that we were not aware of before, thaf 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 425 
 
 wakes up when we approach the solemn shadows with a 
 friend. It may be that the soul has compressed and uncon- 
 scious powers which are stirred and wrought upon as it looks 
 over the borders into its future home, its loves and its 
 longings so swell and beat, that they astonish itself. We 
 are greater than we know, and dimly feel it with every ap- 
 proach to the great hereafter. " It doth not yet appear what 
 
 we shall be." 
 
 ******* 
 
 " Now, I '11 tell you what 't is," said Aunt Roxy, opening 
 the door, " all the strength this 'ere girl spends a-talkin' to- 
 night, will be so much taken out o' the whole cloth to-mor- 
 row." 
 
 Moses started up. " I ought to have thought of that, 
 Mara." 
 
 " Ye see," said Miss Roxy, " she 's been through a good 
 deal to-day, and she must be got to sleep at some rate or 
 other to-night. 'Lord, if he sleep he shall do well,' the 
 Bible says, and it's one of my best nussin' maxims." 
 
 " And a good one, too, Aunt Roxy " said Mara. " Good- 
 night, dear boy, you see we must all mind Aunt Roxy." 
 
 Moses bent down and kissed her, and felt her arms around 
 his neck. 
 
 " Let not your heart be troubled," she whispered. lo 
 spite of himself Moses felt the storm that had risen in his 
 bosom that morning soothed by the gentle influences which 
 Mara breathed upon it. There is a sympathetic power in 
 all states of mind, and they who have reached the deep se- 
 cret of eternal rest have a strange power of imparting calm 
 to others. 
 
 It was in the very crisis of the battle that Christ said to 
 his disciples, " My peace 1 give unto you" and they that are 
 
426 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 made one with him acquire like precious power of shedding 
 round them repose, as evening flowers shed odors. Moses 
 went to his pillow sorrowful and heart-stricken, but bitter 
 or despairing he could not be with the consciousness of tliat 
 present angel in the house,. 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 427 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 THE next morning rose calm and bright with that won- 
 derful and mystical stillness and serenity which glorify au- 
 tumn days. It was impossible that such skies could smile 
 and such gentle airs blow the sea into one great waving 
 floor of sparkling sapphires without bringing cheerfulness to 
 human hearts. You must be very despairing indeed when 
 Nature is doing her best, to look her in the face sullen and 
 defiant. So long as there is a drop of good in your cup, a 
 penny in your exchequer of happiness, a bright day reminds 
 you to look at it, and feel that all is not gone yet. 
 
 So felt Moses when he stood in the door of the brown 
 house, while Mrs. Fennel was clinking plates and spoons 
 as she set the breakfast-table, and Zephaniah Fennel in his 
 shirt-sleeves was washing in the back-room, while Miss Roxy 
 came down-stairs in a business-like fashion bringing sundry 
 bowls, plates, dishes, and mysterious pitchers from the sick- 
 room. 
 
 " Well, Aunt Roxy, you a'n't one that lets the grass grow 
 under your feet," said Mrs. Fennel. " How is the dear child 
 this morning ? " 
 
 " Well, she had a better night than one could have ex- 
 pected," said Miss Roxy, " and by the time she 's had her 
 breakfast, she expects to sit up a little and see her friends." 
 Miss Roxy said this in a cheerful tone, looking encourag- 
 ingly at Moses whom she began to pity and patronize, now 
 she saw how real was his affliction. 
 
128 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 After breakfast Moses went to see her ; she was sitting up 
 in her white dressing-gown looking so thin and poorly, and 
 everything in the room was fragrant with the spicy smell 
 of the monthly roses, whose late buds and blossoms Miss 
 Roxy had gathered for the vases. She seemed so natural, so 
 calm and cheerful, so interested in all that went on around 
 her, that one almost forgot that the time of her stay must be 
 so short. She called Moses to come and look at her drawings, 
 and paintings of flowers and birds, full of reminders they 
 were of old times, and then she would have her pencils and 
 colors, and work a little on a bunch of red rock-columbine, 
 that she had begun to do for him ; and she chatted of all the 
 old familiar places where flowers grew, and of the old talks 
 they had had there, till Moses quite forgot himself; forgot 
 that he was in a sick room, till Aunt Roxy, warned by the 
 deepening color on Mara's cheeks, interposed her "missing" 
 authority, that she must do no more that day. 
 
 Then Moses laid her down, and arranged her pillows so 
 that she could look out on the sea, and sat and read to her 
 till it was time for her afternoon nap ; and when the evening 
 shadows drew on, he marvelled with himself how the day 
 had gone. 
 
 Many such there were all that pleasant month of Septem- 
 ber, and he was with her all the time, watching her wants 
 and doing her bidding, reading over and over with a soft- 
 ened modulation her favorite hymns and chapters, arranging 
 Her flowers, and bringing her home wild bouquets from all 
 hsr favorite wood-haunts, which made her sick-room seem 
 like some sylvan bower. Sally Kittridge, was there too, al- 
 most every day, with always some friendly offering or some 
 helpful deed of kindness, and sometimes they two together 
 would keep guard over the invalid while Miss Roxy went 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 429 
 
 home to attend to some of her own more peculiar concerns, 
 Mara seemed to rule all around her with calm sweetness and 
 wisdom, speaking unconsciously only the speech of heaven, 
 talking of spiritual things, not in an excited rapture or wild 
 ecstasy, but with the sober certainty of waking bliss. She 
 seemed like one of the sweet friendly angels one reads of in 
 tiie Old Testament, so lovingly companionable, walking and 
 miking, eating and drinking, with mortals, yet ready at any 
 unknown moment to ascend with the flame of some sacrifice 
 and be gone. There are those (a few at least), whose bless- 
 ing it has been to have kept for many days in bonds of 
 earthly fellowship, a perfected spirit in whom the work of 
 purifying love was wholly done, who lived in calm victory 
 over sin and sorrow and death, ready at any moment to be 
 called to the final mystery of joy. 
 
 Yet it must come at last, the moment when heaven 
 alaims its own, and it came at last in the cottage on Orr's 
 Island. There came a day when the room so sacredly cheer- 
 ful was hushed to a breathless stillness ; the bed was then 
 all snowy white, and that soft still sealed face, the parted 
 waves of golden hair, the little hands folded over the white 
 robe, all had a sacred and wonderful calm, a rapture of re- 
 pose that seemed to say " it is done." 
 
 They who looked on her wondered ; it was a look that 
 sunk deep into every heart ; it hushed down the common 
 cant of those who, according to country custom, went to 
 stare blindly at the great mystery of death, for all that 
 came out of that chamber smote upon their breasts and 
 went away in silence, revolving strangely whence might 
 come that unearthly beauty, that celestial joy. 
 
 Once more, in that very room where James and Naomi 
 Lincoln had lain side by side in their coffins, sleeping rest- 
 
430 THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 
 
 fully, there was laid another form, shrouded and coffined, 
 but with such a fairness and tender purity, such a mysteri- 
 ous fulness of joy in its expression, that it seemed more 
 natural to speak of that rest as some higher form of life 
 than of death. 
 
 Once more were gathered the neighborhood ; all the faces, 
 known in this history, shone out in one solemn picture, of 
 which that sweet restful form was the centre. Zephaniah 
 Pennel and Mary his wife, Moses and Sally, the dry form 
 of Captain Kittridge and the solemn face of his wife, Aunt 
 Roxy and Aunt Ruey, Miss Emily and Mr. Sewell ; but 
 their faces all wore a tender brightness, such as we see fall- 
 ing like a thin celestial veil over all the (aces in an old Flo- 
 rentine painting. The room was full of sweet memories, of 
 words of cheer, words of assurance, words of triumph, and 
 the mysterious brightness of that young face forbade them 
 to weep. Solemnly Mr. Sewell read, 
 
 " He will swallow up death in victory ; and the Lord God 
 will wipe away tears from off all faces ; and the rebuke of 
 his people shall he take away from off all the earth ; for 
 the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, 
 Lo this is our God ; we have waited for him, and he will 
 gave us ; this is the Lord ; we have waited for him, we 
 will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." 
 
 Then the prayer trembled up to heaven with thanksgiv- 
 ing, for the early entrance of that fair young saint into 
 glory, and then the same old funeral hymn, with >ts 
 ful triumph: 
 
 " Why should we mourn departed friend* 
 
 Or shake at death's alarms, 
 T is but the voice that Jesus sends 
 To call them to his arms." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 431 
 
 Then in a few words Mr. Sewell reminded them how 
 that hymn had been sung in this room so many years ago, 
 when that frail fluttering orphan soul had been baptized into 
 the love and care of Jesus, and how her whole life passing 
 before them in its simplicity and beauty, had come to be so 
 holy and beautiful a close, and when, pointing to the calm 
 sleeping face he asked, "Would we call her back ? " there 
 was not a heart at that moment that dared answer, Yes. 
 Even he that should have been her bridegroom could not 
 at that moment have unsealed the holy charm, and so they 
 bore her away, and laid the calm smiling face beneath the 
 soil, by the side of poor Dolores. 
 
 ***** * * 
 
 "I had a beautiful dream last night," said Zephaniah 
 Fennel, the next morning after the funeral, as he opened his 
 Bible to conduct family worship. 
 
 " What was it ? " said Miss Roxy. 
 
 " Well ye see, I thought I was out a-walkin' up and down 
 and lookin' and lookin' for something that I 'd lost. What it 
 was I could n't quite make out, but my heart felt heavy as 
 if it would break, and I was lookin' all up and down the 
 sands by the sea-shore, and somebody said I was like the 
 merchantman, seeking goodly pearls. I said I had lost my 
 pearl my pearl of great price and then I looked up, and 
 far off on the beach, shining softly on the wet sands, lay my 
 pearl. I thought it was Mara, but it seemed a great pearl 
 with a soft moonlight on it ; and I was running for it when 
 gome one said ' hush,' and I looked and I saw Him a-com- 
 tng Jesus of Nazareth, jist as he walked by the sea of 
 Galilee. It was all dark night around Him, but I could 
 see Him by the light that came from his face, and the long 
 hair was hanging down on his shoulders. He came and took 
 
432 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 up my pearl and put it on his forehead, and it shone out 
 like a star, and shone into my heart, and I felt happy ; 
 and he looked at me steadily, and rose and rose in the air, 
 and, melted in the clouds, and I awoke so happy, and so 
 calm!" 
 
THE PEABL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 433 
 
 CHAPTER XLIY. 
 
 IT was a splendid evening in July, and the sky was filled 
 high with gorgeous tabernacles of purple, and gold, the re- 
 mains of a grand thunder-shower which had freshened the 
 air, and set a separate jewel on every needle leaf of the old 
 pines. 
 
 Four years had passed since the fair Pearl of Orr's Island 
 had been laid beneath the gentle soil, which every year sent 
 monthly tributes of flowers to adorn her rest, great blue 
 violets, and starry flocks of ethereal eye-brights in spring, and 
 fringy asters, and golden rod in autumn. In those days the 
 tender sentiment which now makes the burial-place a culti- 
 vated garden, was excluded by the rigid spiritualism of the 
 Puritan life, which, ever jealous of that which concerned the 
 body, lest it should claim what belonged to the immortal 
 alone, had frowned on all watching of graves, as an earth- 
 ward tendency, and enjoined the flight of faith with the 
 spirit, rather than the yearning for its cast-off garments. 
 
 But Sally Kittridge being lonely, found something in her 
 Ueart which could only be comforted by visits to that grave. 
 So she had planted there roses and trailing myrtle, and 
 tended and watered them ; a proceeding which was much 
 commented on Sunday noons, when people were eating 
 their dinners and discussing their neighbors. 
 
 It is possible good Mrs. Kittridge might have been much 
 scandalized by it, had she been in a condition to think on 
 19 
 
434 THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 
 
 the matter at all; but a very short time after the funeral 
 she was seized with a paralytic shock, which left her for a 
 while as helpless as an infant ; and then she sank away into 
 the grave, leaving Sally the sole care of the old Captain. 
 
 A cheerful home she made, too, for his old age, adorning 
 the house with many little tasteful fancies unknown in her 
 mother's days ; reading the Bible to him and singing ManVs 
 favorite hymns, with a voice as sweet as the spring blue-bird. 
 
 The spirit of the departed friend seemed to hallow the 
 dwelling where these two worshipped her memory, in simple- 
 hearted love. Her paintings, framed in quaint woodland 
 frames of moss and pine-cones by Sally's own ingenuity, 
 adorned the walls. Her books were on the table, and among 
 them many that she had given to Moses. 
 
 " I am going to be a wanderer for many years," he said 
 in parting, " keep these for me until I come back." 
 
 And so from time to time passed long letters between the 
 two friends, each telling to the other the same story, that 
 they were lonely, and that their hearts yearned for the com- 
 munion of one who could no longer be manifest to the senses. 
 And each spoke to the other of a world of hopes and memo- 
 ries buried with her, " Which," each so constantly said, " no 
 one could understand but you." Each, too, was firm in the 
 taith that buried love must have no earthly resurrection. 
 Every letter strenuously insisted that they should call each 
 other brother and sister, and under cover of those names 
 the letters grew longer and more frequent, and with every 
 chance opportunity came presents from the absent brother, 
 which made the little old cottage quaintly suggestive with 
 smell of spice and sandal-wood. 
 
 But, as we said, this is a glorious July evening, and 
 you may discern two figures picking their way over tbos 
 
THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. 435 
 
 low sunken rocks, yellowed with sea-weed, of which we have 
 often spoken. They are Moses and Sally going on an even- 
 ing walk to that favorite grotto retreat, which has so often 
 been spoken of in the course of this history. 
 
 Moses has come home from long wanderings. It is four 
 years since they parted, and now they meet and have looked 
 into each other's eyes, not as of old, when they met in the first 
 giddy flush of youth, but as fully developed man and woman. 
 Moses and Sally had just risen from the tea-table where she 
 had presided with a thoughtful housewifery gravity, just pleas- 
 antly dashed with quaint streaks of her old merry wilfulness, 
 while the old Captain, warmed up like a rheumatic grass- 
 hopper in a fine autumn day, chirruped feebly, and told 
 some of his old stories, which now he told every day, for- 
 getting that they had ever been heard before. Somehow all 
 three had been very happy ; the more so, from a shadowy 
 sense of some sympathizing presence which was rejoicing to 
 see them together again, and which, stealing soft-footed and 
 noiseless everywhere, touched and lighted up every old fa- 
 miliar object with sweet memories. 
 
 And so they had gone out together to walk ; to walk tow- 
 ards the grotto where Sally had caused a seat to be made, 
 and where she declared she had passed hours and hours, 
 knitting, sewing, or reading. 
 
 " Sally," said Moses, " do you know I am tired of wander- 
 ing ? I am coming home now. I begin to want a home of 
 my own." This he said as they sat together on the rustic 
 eat and looked off on the blue sea. 
 
 " Yes, you must," said Sally. " How lonely that ship 
 looks, just coming in there." 
 
 " Yes, they are beautiful," said Moses abstractedly ; and 
 Sally rattled on about the difference between sloops and 
 
436 THE PEARL OF OER'S ISLAND. 
 
 brigs ; seeming determined that there should be no silence, 
 such as often comes in ominous gaps between two friends 
 who have long been separated, and have each many things 
 lo say with which the other is not familiar. 
 
 " Sally ! " said Moses, breaking in with a deep voice on 
 one of these monologues. tt Do you remember some pre 
 sumptuous things I once said to you, in this place ? " 
 
 Sally did not answer, and there was a dead silence in which 
 they could hear the tide gently dashing on the weedy rocks- 
 
 " You and I are neither of us what we were then, Sally," 
 said Moses. "We are as different as if we were each 
 another person. We have been trained in another life, 
 educated by a great sorrow, is it not so ? " 
 
 " I know it," said Sally. 
 
 " And why should we two, who have a world of thoughts 
 and memories which no one can understand but the other, 
 why should we, each of us, go on alone ? If we must, why 
 then, Sally, I must leave you, and I must write and receive 
 no more letters, for I have found that you are becoming so 
 wholly necessary to me, that if any other should claim you, 
 I could not feel as I ought. Must I go ? " 
 
 Sally's answer is not on record ; but one infers what it was 
 from the fact that they sat there very late, and before they 
 knew it, the tide rose up and shut them in, and the moon 
 rose up in full glory out of the water, and still they sat and 
 lalked, leaning on each other, till a cracked, feeble voice 
 i ailed down through the pine-trees above, like a hoarse 
 old cricket, 
 
 " Children, be you there ? " 
 
 " Yes, father," said Sally, blushing and conscious. 
 
 " Yes, all right," said the deep bass of Moses. " I '11 bring 
 Her back when I 've done with her, Captain." 
 
THE PEARL OF ORE'S ISLAND. 437 
 
 " "Wai', wal* ; I was gettin* consarued ; but I see I don't 
 Deed to. I hope you won't get no colds nor nothin'." 
 
 They did not ; but in the course of a month there was a 
 wedding at the brown house of the old Captain, which every- 
 body in the parish was glad of, and was voted without dis- 
 sent to be just the thing. 
 
 Miss Roxy, grimly approbative, presided over the prep- 
 arations, and all the characters of our story appeared, and 
 more, having on their wedding-garments. Nor was the 
 wedding less joyful, that all felt the presence of a heavenly 
 guest, silent and loving, seeing and blessing all, whose voioe 
 seemed to say in every heart, 
 
 " He turneth the shadow of death into morning." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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