Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-12-23
THE HIGH TIDE OF DECEMBER.

From the Atlantic Monthly for Jauuary.[
Breakfast was ready. Captain LufHin.
who, like most retired old salts, had a
healthy stomach, and humored If, crossed
and uncrossed his stumpy little legs, and
pulled his gray moustache eomplacently,
when he caught the first sniff of the hot
coffee and broiling beefsteak.
He had been down on the fogry beach.
flor the high winter tides were worth
watching on that lonely coast and was
now drying his feet before the cracking
wood in the dining-room CRATE but even
Ann, (the clam-digger's daughter, pro-
NOTED to cook as she hustled inland out.
had seen the Captain was out of temper,
as he waited, frowning portentousIy, and
wsgging his bald head now and then as if
a wasp stung it.
Lutlin, who aboard ship would have
risked a thousand lives on his own cool
Judgment, had been uneasy and irritable
for two mouths back, ever since Mrs. ,Jaco-
bus had written to him about buving this
house for her.
ut was to bel Christmas gift from her
to her husband" she wrote. NSbe
wanted ii, therefore, kept a secret from
him. Any quiet corner along the coast
which they could make into a home"
Adding something about NJ. Jacobus 'be-
ing tagged out with work, and needing
rest" at which Luflin shook his head. The |
Captain knew, that, book worm and pic
ture-maniac though he might be, Jacobus
had managed to squander in some unae-
countable way, his own and his wife.s
fortune. So much of their history had
got back TO the fshing-town where she
had lived when a child. People even
limited that they had been almost starving
latterly in New York. However that
might be, old Luflin knew that the sum
she RENTED to him was the last
they had left, and beyond this, he had a
shrewd suspicion that in the shipwreck
the Jacobuses had made Of life something
of more worth than money had been lost.
and that this home she talked of was most
probably a last effort to bury some shame
full secret.
The Captain, in his disgust at the I'M
known bookworm, fretted under the whole
affair. Its not in my line" he would
growl. "Itsa cursed bore Poor Char
lette she used to swim like a frog in the
inlet there, when she was only eleven.
She's little heart for swimming now, its
And would begin his search
redoubled vigor.
This house, a grey stone cottage of five
Or SIX rooms, in the most solitary part of
the lee-coast, had been vacant sometime,
and was TO be sold cheap. Lufiin bought
and furnished it in his own name; and
hen, as she directed, asked the Professor
aud his wife down to spend the Christmas
holidays with him. He was as anxious
md awkward as a schOol-boy when they
the night before. ]
at was too tough a job for you to set {
ne, Charlotte he grumbled. allow was L ]
o choose a home for a man that lives, 5
hey say, by the sight of his eyes and the
of his ears Waters water 10 !
ne, and rocks rocks" trotting after her as
he went through the house in silence t
the survey with twoor three sharp. {
decisive mods and a quick, pleased little
{
SSatisfed? Yes, | am. We've had a t
,ood many houses, jerome and /; but this
home.D \
The Captain understood her. .
In the morning; however, he felt all his q
return. Mrs. Jacobus' quick, firm t
sounded above, below him; presently il
he came in with a jug of yellow cream b
nd set it on the table, adjusting the dishes.
a glass of holly in the middle, v
the window-curtains to letthe a
old, gray wintry light fall on the white n
10th and pretty blue china service. &
'Those oysters now 2 said the Captain, e
nxiOusly. "Ann S a poor cook" h
"She's clean as a Shaker, though. But C
broiled them myself"-laughing to see
H. -. -
-aThcy-red all right then, Charlotte p :
eyes" Fl
She would give mind to the oysters, he Of
new. 1t had been her way to put a little
her brains and blood into all her Jobs in Ii
fe, finishing each with a self satisfied lit Il
g nod. No wonder that she was worn, g
ow that she was's middle-aged woman.
"She's lost something, Lofty has, since 1 h,
new her" he thought, watching the light a
CURE in its dark blue dress moving about e,
but she's the right stuff for home use,"-
some vague idea in his old saltwater v
rain of delicate, incomplete faces suiting Il
est with moonlight and country s%trolls,
nd of the sparkle of dinner-lights and brill u
eyes agreeing together, but that a tt
zee like Charlotte's was the one for the "
reakfast-table. The shrewd, kindly eyes, k
lie color on her face, and the laugh came b
n you as fresh as a child's,-if her hair *
-as a bit gray. n
She had gone to the bay-window that p
yerlooked the stretch of coast on which 81
he heavy winter tide wa coming in, and n
rown silent watching it. The Captain
illed her; he wanted nothing to put the b
back this morning. And he n
lncied that to q woman who had been a "
,ader in the world of culture and refine Il
tent yonder, this sky and loud forebod- n
" surf might have some meaning of G
,hich he knew nothing. 0
Natures voices, Ell q" coming to her Il
de. Il
Some expression that had held her face s,
escaped it. C
81 am watching for jerome. Yonder "
e m with your fisherman, by the in
t,"-poInting to two dark figures in the Il
crossing the sands below. 81
Thee house stood on q ledge, facing the II
"a; ramparts of rocks, gray and threaten O
lg, in this light, running down on either o
de, and shutting out all outlook but that b
{ the dull obstinate stretch of sand on 81
-hich the sea had beaten and fallen back "
II centuries, with the same bafled, mel a
cry. Behind the house were clumps II
{ pine and cedars. Nature had done all b
ie could in wringing out whatever green
nd lusty life which left inrocks and sand tt
make the place home-like and cheerful. a
the trees, there was a patch of d
itchen garden back of the house, a e grape p
inc or two on the walls, trailing moss C
10 its caves, the delicate web v
Ike moss that grows along this coast out P
dead wood; even the beach rocks glow v
! into colors5-dark browns, puppies, and ID
eds. C
But for all these it needed summer and Il
lnshine. On this, the day before Christ h
the houses about it were smothered in h
cold mist; not only the shivering sea be- "
ond had voice or motion. t.
at is a dull, uncanny place, Mrs. Jaco-
said Lufflin, anxiously. at looks 7
Ike a prison to me to-day. What if we've h
q 81 a