The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-07-25

livery practical. I'm glad to see
that you know what bake kettle isl
T "Well, did you marry me for cook ?"
"What little fraud you'd have been
if I had !! Come, don't be silly. I didn't
marry you to beruined by careless waste
and extravaganza"
ooh oh ! oh!'
"What do you call it, then? Here
are cords of tlrift-wood thrown up with
almost every other tide, and instead OF
harvesting it, we Let it wash away with
the next, and you laugh at me and get
angry and call me names if I propose to
save some OF 1t.
"Call you names !"
eyes, you do. You think it's mean
and sordid."
II never said so, anyway. That's
your guilty conscience. Oh, pshaw
I think it's silly and very impIS, tical. "
"Well, I don't care what you think
Here's the beach covered with this light
wood, and I'm going to call the servants
aud have it gathered before dark"
"You can't; for Terence is waiting
with the horses at the other station for
the colonel, and you gave little Jim
leave to 60 to his grandmother's, and it's
Hannah's evening out, and Kitty must
be in readiness to wait on table; and so
there's nobody but Nora, and she's busy,
and it isn't her work, and she'd refuse to
do it, and that would make you angry,
and I should lose good cook"
"Five servants to wait upon two
people It's shameful p groaned Rex.
"They're not waiting on two people.
They're taking care of the grounds, the
horses, the house, and cooking for COM
pany more than for us.
"Well, then, if there's nobody else,
I'll do it myself" he said, desperately
"I'll do it myself"
"And I'll sit down here and see how
long it will be before you're tired OF 1t. -
"I dare say you will y he exclaimed,
savagely. II suppose it would break
your back to pick up one of these chips. "
ooh, if that's what you mean," cried
+, in an answering fury-we did fight
just like children-"if you want your
wife for drudge, guess [ can pick up
wood as long as the next one !" [ de-
clare T didn't seem to know Rex any
longer, and I'm very sure he didn't know
me. doubled up my skirt and pinned
it back like fish -woman-I didn't have
another pin about ME than that long gold
one with the diamond head that you
used to admire so, but 1 quilted it i'll !;
and tied knot in my scarf-it was my
old rose-colored and gold India mantle /;
and ran and caught this stick and that
stick and hurled them up the beach, and
Rex was tossing them up too; and before
I knew it there was stack of them, and L
was determined that my stack should be
as big as his; and presently he stopped
and slapped the dust off his hands and
looked at me and laughed.
"What do you mean to do with your
pile when it's dune?" said he.
"Set fire to it, and run away by the
light of it," said I.
"No, wouldn't" said he. eft would
be great deal better to kiss your hus-
band and make up" And so we did
there was never anybody to see on our
Long beach. "Now,' said Rex, 81
don't want you to do this. I'm Just going
to finish these piles myself to show Ter
ence what he could do in srare hour,
and what he's neglecting."
"Oh, I think it's good fun," said I !;
and at it we went again, each trying to
outdo the other; now gathering the dry
splinters, now growing greedy and trying
to fetch in some big stick floating in a
little blight, and reaching out for it, l
sure to lose my balance and plunge III
over shoes and scream and run-my
beautiful new French boots that / had
p, i'd twenty dollars for the last time l
was in town, and they wouldn't even do
for Kitty now! But no matter, we were
having a royal time, and had forgotten
all about old Colonel M'Manus.
eff you knew how it made you look,
you'd take such exercise every day, " Rex
stopped long enough to get breath and
say. "Your cheeks are like two red
roses"
And of course didn't stay at that /;
and gay half hour it was. All at once
I felt wet to my skin, and I looked, and
there was the skirt of my dress that l
had pinned up so carefully all down and
drabbled, and the front of it wet through
with the dripping of the last wood [ had
saved, and the pin "Oh, I've lost
the pin!" I exclaimed" my beautiful
long diamond-headed pin !"
"You nave? Well, charge it to profit
and loss," said Rex. cit would be idle
to look for it on this sand and shingle-
needle in haymow, and dark hay
NOW, too, presently. It's gone to keep
company with my cuff button" "
ooh, Rex! One of your wonderful
cuff buttons !" I cried, standing still
with my armful. They were antiques
one of the very things, they said, when
We bought them at Rome, that Cellini
had of the peasants, who found them
when turning up the ancient soil about
the vines-heads of Caesars exquisitely
cut in onyx. And just then, as was ex-
claiming, wave came running up behind
me and knocked my feet up like two
ninepins, and fell face down, and the
wood in my arms struck my necklace of
carved coral roses, and they flew hun
dred ways at once; and the next instant
there was great sound in my ears, and
I felt the world going away from under
me, and Rex seized me just in time and
pulled and threw me up the sand, and
there was whole shelf of the beach torn
down and gone, and my corals with it.
"'The scream of maddened beach
dragged down by the wave,'" said Rex,
laughing, for fear I should be crying.
"You're not hurt, darling?"
Oh, quick! quick I'm sinking!" I
cried, in an agony. And so I was-in
the quicksand, which we had always
heard moved up and down the Long
beach, but which we had never believed
in because we couldn't find it. I'll be
sucked in in moment!" I shrieked.
Something's pulling me underneath
Boards-quick-one of the planks Oh,
Rex Rex! What horrid death I'm
going oh. goodbye, darling"- And
the last I knew l saw him flat on his
face crawling toward me over the sand.
And when openied my eyes again,
was in my own bed, with Rex hanging
distractedly over the foot of it, and the
doctor puttinga spoon between my teeth,
and all the lamps in the house burning.