The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-10-21
"KITTY. I"
BY LAWRENCE BUCKLY.

I L1pplncOtt Magazine: Inc luier was
hopelessIy becalmed off Thomas point
Not ripple could be seen down the
Chesapeake, and the locusts and pines
along the shore were shudderipg uncom-
! Portable with the heat of July after
noon, hidden half way to their tops in
| the summer haze. What was to be done2
Five miles from home in a large sloop
yacht filed with strangers from the north,
the crew left behind to be out of the
way, and every one convinced that his
neignior was horribly bored!
Thornton gave the tilIer a vicious
shove, as if that would wake the yacht
up. and glared forward along the row of
psrasols protecting fair faces from the
sun and of hats cooked over noses that
were screwed up with feelings too deep
for words, and more intense than those
produced by heat, he thought. By five
o'clock we had sung every song that ever
was written, and firtations were becom-
ing desperate. Mollie Brogden, COM
fortably lodged against the mast, was
dropping her parasol lower and lower
over one of the New York men as their
conversation grew more and more intense
with the heat, and Mrs. Brogden was be-
coming really alarmed.
The situation on was maddening.
Nothing on board to eat; soft shell crabs
and the best bill of fare of southern
kitchen ordered at home for 7 o'clock; a
couple of fddlers coming from the
swamp" at nine; and Cousin Susan. the
cook, even then promising little Neal 'all
de bonyclaba he cu'd stow of he jest friz
dis here cream fo' de new missis."
''It is too provoking for anything!" the
missis whispered to Thornton, as be
stopped by his wife's side for an instant,
and moved on to consult with some of
| the married men who were smoking in
luxuriant carelessness forward. Very
little consolation he got there. Ellis,
from Annapolis, said he had known calms
to last two days, and sundry forcible re-
marks were made when it was discovered
that the last cigars were then in our
mouths. This was the last straw. Thorn
ton felt furious with every one, and NUT
tered dark wishes that the ante-war pow
| er might be restored to him over the per-
son of old Uncle Brian when we got
home-if we ever did-as he reflected
that that ancient African had guaranteed
| breeze.
"By the way, Donaldson, as a sudden
inspiration seemed to strike Thornton,
''did you ever hear anything more of
Kitty after left you at Christmas"
The sweetness of that piece of poetry
on the fan was never revealed. The blue
parasol went up with jump, and look
assured Donaldson that certain words
| had better have been left unsaid that af-
ternoon if ''Kitty" should not be satis-
faotorily explained. 1 felt sorry for him,
for every one caught at the idea of some
thing new, and the thought of an expla-
nation to the whole of that boatload keen
for all sorts of bandinage, would have
tempted me overheard, am sure. How
ever, Donaldson smiled very composed
ly, and said he believed the family were
still in Texas, although he had heard
nothing more than Thornton already
knew of their history.
Well, that simply made matters worse;
Texas and Kitty were suggestive enough
for anything, and I caught a whisper
from Miss Brogden that seemed to imply
that she doubted whether he had really
been so inconsolable for last summers
diversions as he had tried to make her
believe. That settled him, for I knew
he had come down to Thornton's ex-
pressly to see her, and he assured us it
was very small story, but if We cared
to believe it perhaps the breeze would
come meanwhile. and he would try and
give the facts exactly as they had come
to his knowledge.
"We were few hours out from Liv-
erpool," he began, "the smoking room
of the Russia was pretty well filled with
all sorts of men, none of whom of course
felt much at home yet, but who were
gradually being shaken together by the
civilizing influence of tobacco and the
occasional lurches that the crosschop of
the channel was favoring us with. I was
sitting near the door with man from
Boston, whom found on board return
ing from wedding trip, and who, L dis
covered, had taken orders since leaving
Harvard, where l had known him slight
" as bookish sort of fellow and not
very agreeable; bnt as I was alone and
his wife was quite pretty, I was glad to
meet him.
"Well, We were running over old times,
without paying much attention to the
guide-book talk that was being poured
out around us when somebody laid
hand on my shoulder and one of the most
attractive voices | ever heard asked If
there was room for stranger from Tex
asi' This formal announcement of him.
self by a newcomer made little lull in
the conversation, but my friend made
room for him in our corner, and he quiet
ly enveloped himself in smoke for the
rest Of the evening.
HE was not inattentive, tho, to the
drift of our talk, for when Hamilton
mentioned having been at the Pan-Algel-
lean, and spoke of the effect such con-
ventions should produce, the Texans
cigar came out of his mouth and his blue
eyes grew deeper in their sockets as he
interrupted us with the remark: The
conventions OF all the Bible-men in the
world would not have made La Junta
any better IL ~ ha1 ,nf 1,..ap for Kitty