Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-06-03
NO. 132.
Cafes and Sketehes.
UNDER THE SEA.

They were serambling down the rocks,
a gay, chattering procession-pretty Kate
with her Captain; DIR. Gray supporting
his invalid wife; Helen, Isabel, Tom,
and their midshipman cousin; last of all,
Esther Vane-alone. 1t seemed to her
morbid fancy right that it should be SO.
Henceforward she must be alone-always.
The little guide trotted on in advance
his round, ten-year old face wearing the
vacant look so strangely common to that
part of the Maine coast, with its glorious
scenery There the ocean is considered
simply vast depot of herrings and
"porgy- oil,n and the mountains as un-
toward obstacles in the way of a primitive
husbandry. .'Blast'em / wish they was
fiat the natives say, as their ploughs en-
counter the boulders at the base; and if
they look aloft at all, it is to calculate the
perches of ''medder land' which might
be made to occupy the same area, if they
were out of the way.
The party felt on the eve of great things.
Having arrived only the day before, Mount
Newport, with its wonderful reach of
sapphire sea, the bluffs, the lakes in their
settings of dark-blue hill, were still to
them the images of things not seen.
This their first excursion, they had dedi-
Gated to the ..Grotto,n or "Devirs Oven,"
as the coast people term it-a sort of sub
marine cave, unveiled and accessible at
low tide only, and great wonder in its
way.
The path grew sleeper. Carefully they
followed its windings, step by step. sure
footed Kate accepting the help she didn't
need, for that pleasure in being guided
and watched. And now the little guide
pauses, and with freckled foretinger
points round a projection of rock All
crowd to the spot. All! there it is The
cave of the mermaids! A shrek of min
gled surprise and enchantment bursts
from the party at the sight.
Beneath the low Drowned arch the rocky
floor rises, terrace after terrace, till in its
highest recess it meets the roof above. A
floor for the nereids to dance upon a floor
of pink coraline, cleaning here and there
through pools of emerald water left by
the retreating tide. And each of these
tiny lakelets seemed brimming with flow
ers--the flowers of ocean-green whorls.
! like chestnut burs; aremones, with their
dahlia bloom; brown and rosy MOSES,
among whose tendrils bright fish darted
and played, and snails of vivid orange
clustered; broad leaves of brilliant dye
swaying and undulating with the motion
of the pool-minute specks of life flash
ing every iridescent hue. No earthly gar
den was ever so gorgeous. The rocky
shelves were dimpled with hollows-softly
exquisitely curved. No fancy of the old
classic days seemed too fantastic or too
fair for the spot. The imagination in
stinctivcly kindled into pictures, and saw
the sea nymphs sporting in the foam bold
trtons winding their shells; mermaids
PLAYING at hide-and-seek mikes and
mocking water-sprites peeping from the
basins-all dream-land and wonderland
opening. and the common earth put aside
and far away.
With cries of delight, the party made
their way down, and scattered through the
cave. There was room for an army. 1t
was hard to realize that the returning tide
the space must fill, the gateway close, and
leave no resting place for human foot.
you. little boy?"
yeah
"You're sure? ?'' ta@au
yeah"
That's NICE" cried Isabel "Then we
can stay as long as we like. Oh do some
body come here and see this"
She was living with her face almost
touching the anomenes Nobody respond
ed to her call-had found some other point
of interest Tom had fshed up sea-
urchin and was exhibiting it. Kate and
the Captain, in niche of their own, at
safe whispering distance, were absorbed
| in each other. Esther had climbed to the
topmost ledge, and was sitting there alone.
For the first time in six weary months, a
sensation of pleasure had come to her, and
she was conscious of but one longing-that
they would all go away and leave her to
realize it. With some vague hope, she got
out color-box and portfolio, and began to
sketch. At least it kept people off and fur
nished an excuse for silence.
And so an hour or more passed by. She
| heard, as in dream, the chatter of the
others, their questions to the little guide,
his short, jerky replies. The pools.were
all explored; the urchins and anemones
had been tickled with parasols, and made
to shut and open and shut again the young
people began to sigh for further worlds to
to conquer, and Mrs. Gray to consider it
very damp.
Little boy, isn't there something else
near by which we should like to see ?"
"Guess so.n
"Well, what is it? Tell us please"
There's the Heads, guess"
"Oh! how far off is that A mile did
you say? That's not far. Papa, the boy
says there's place called the Heads, only
mile away, and we want to go and see
it. Can't we go? You know the way;
don't you, little boy?"
yeah"
"I think this place is very damp sighed
Mrs. Gray II should really be glad to go
somewhere and feel the sunshine again.
| begin to have creeping chills. Suppose
we let the boy show us the way to the
other place, father"
VERY well. Get your things together,
girls. Come, Esther we're going"
Esther reused herself as from dream.
80 Mr.. Gray. must go? Tn in the mid
die of a sketch, you see. Couldn't you
leave me here quietly, and pick me up as
YOU come back l should like it so much"
well don't know. The tide is go
ing out, the boys say there won't be any
trouble of that kind. Are you sure you
won't be chilled OF ioaslye"
Promise me that if You are. you will