Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-01-19

you ask!
You're as white as a Sheet child you
We been sittin' too close at that fine work
However, the color's beginnin' to come back
little now !"
Mrs. Moore sat down in cushioned rock
! ing-chair, and united her bonnet strings a
plump, CHEEKY little body, with cheeks like
the sunny side of Bartlett pair, and bright
gray eyes that had winning sparkle in
| them yet.
1--WE been over to Desire Peabody's to
find when Mahala Ann was to be married, y
began she; and | come by way of the
medder on the south hill, and the ground
under that tree was Jest red with these ERE
apples. ! calc'late they blowed down last
night, when the gale come up. Jest as red
as though they'd been painted they will
make beautiful pies, won't they, Lefty, with
a pinch o fennel-seed and plenty o good
brown sugar? The very tree your father
insisted was Rhode Island greenin's.
told him better, but Isaac always was dread
full sot in his ways"
Mrs. Moore broke into mellow laugh as
she surveyed the glossy treasures in her
| basket
By-the-way," she resumed, looking
around the room, and leaning back in her
chair to get furitive glimpse into the lit
tie parlor beyond, where's Mr.. Wayne ?"
| He went out to go over to the Great
Cave" said Lettice, bending over her work
! till her cheeks rivaled the scarlet runners
without.
| The Great Cave !" calculated Mrs
Moore, lifting up both hands in dismay,
"when there's a storm blowin' up and the
tide runnin' at the top of the cliff like all
! possessed"
Lettice sprang up and went to the east
crn window, with a strange, underlined fore
boding at her heart
The sky was covered with a rack of lurid
clouds, breaking into ragged shreds before
| the wind and even where she stood she
could hear the hollow booming of the sea
the ''roting,' as it is significantly called by
| those who follow fisher-craft, with ever and
anon sudden report like the discharge of
artillery, as some gigantic breaker shiver-
ed into clouds Of spray against the rocky
! headlands.
She glanced across at the clock.
"lt is strange that he has not returned
it is later than | thought" she murmured.
! Once more at the garden gate, the wind
wildly flinging her curls about, and her eag-
er eyes straining out upon the dizzy rise
and fall of the ocean beyond.
Mother the glass Give me the glassr
Her voice had risen almost to shrek.
Mrs Moore caught the glass from its case
under the mantle, and was at her daughters s
side in an instant.
"What is it, daughter Lefty, what do
you see ?" she asked clinging to the slender
girl with thrill of terror at her heart
Look, mother !" said Lettice, eagerly
giving the glass into the elders hand, and
speaking in quick, gasping tones. "Do
you see that black speck just beyond
Schooner Head There-it is drifting tow
ards us"
IL see it," said the mother, looking stead
lily out at sea.
what is it?' questioned Lettice, breath
lcssly.
a boat-our little fshingboat y
| a thought So" walled the girl. ooh,
mother mother it is the boat that Mr.
Wayne rowed away in this very morning
| 1t is loosened from the moorings, and has
drifted away, and he-O Heavens he is
tide bound in the Great Cave !"
! They looked at one another, pale and ap-
| palled, these two helpless women, with eyes
full Of unspoken horror.
| "Jabez is not here, mother 2"
mo he went to Ellsworth this morn
ing"
| But his boat is moorcd below"
Il believe so, Lefty my child-you
would never risk your life in such sea as
this ?"
Lettice turned upon her mother with sud
den fire
Mother | may be in time to save his
life--who knows ? But if his dead corpse
is thrown upon these dismal rocks, when
the tide rolls in, mine shall lay beside it."
And then, as she saw the white terror on
her mothers face, she added, speaking in
| different and softer accents, Don't be
afraid you know that father always said
| | could manage a boat as well as any fish
erman on the coast"
! Before Mrs Moore could answer Lettice
was springing down the cliffs like a deer.
A moment later she saw the little boat I'M
fastened, and her daughters practiccd hand
steering it out to sea.
And then she fell on her knees hiding her
face against the rocks, and moaning in an
guish.
"God protect my child ! Gods mercy go
with her across the cruel sea !"
! Onward toiled the little boat, straining
and cracking in every seam but Lettice
cared not for that, as she sat gazing out
toward the rocky point, fringed with silver
birches and funeral spruces, beneath which,
like the yawning mouth of some sea-mon-
ster, lurked the Great Cavern of Mount Des-
ert Drenched with flying sheets Of spray
--deafened by the perpetual thunder of the
waves--rocked to and fro by the heaving
tide, as if her tiny craft had been but a
floating leaf, she thought only of Kenneth
Wayne prisoned i'll that dreadful wall OF
stone and struck her oars into the green
tumbling pillows with the frenzied strength
of a madwOmen.
Il will save him. or | will die I" was the
sentence that seemed burned into her brain
in characters of fire.
And what was Mr.. X Kenneth Wayne doing
all this time
Not much sketching, certainly he was
scarcely in mood for that, as he sat there
on projecting ledge of rock, ,moodiIy watch
ing the translucent breakers toss theil
foamy wreath against the wall ofthe cave
and listening to the resounding crash o
the great deep. He had come down will
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