Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-25

his pockets with bonDons, and ribbons,
and the various gewgaws that he thought
would soften the atfliction eof the girl of
twenty, and failing with those, sought to
distract by junketings to parks and prom
enades and shows, and finding these were
distasteful to her, at last yielded to her
desire to go down to the wharves where
the big ships lay. Here they spent hour
after hour, Mr.. McGraw content to hold
one of her hands in his while the other
lay idly in her lap, and her eyes went
wisttully wandering out over the water,
till the shadows grew longer, and the
day was done. Then he would say, gen.
thy, "Come, Maggie" and she would obey
in sweet dutiful fashion, lifting her
face to his, full of some sort of affection
he didn't stop to consider what it was;
but Maggie knew that she owed this lux
ury of melancholy entirely to MIR.
McGraw. He had coaxed her mother in
to giving over Maggie's ordinary drudge
ry into other hands, so that she could
have the comfort of nursing her grief
under the auspices of Mr.. McGraw. His
land-lady, had indeed, needed very little
pursuasion, and met his entreaties half
way. Mr. McGraw found nothing dis
tasteful in this maternal solicitude, hav
| ing for years parted the TRUSTS and
caterings of ANXIOUS mothers in behalf of
their portionless daughters, the more so
as it furthered his own happiness, and
rendered him more and more comtorta-
BILE as time went by.
Now that the hot summer was gone,
and the stormy winds of winter began 10
blow, the old brick lodgings were not so
gloomy. The obliquely visioned ancestor
had been taken from the wall, the horse
haired furniture covered with gray
chintz; the rusty CRATE was rubbed into
rubicund brightness, and therein the Goals
biazed generously. There was no stint
in the maternal blessings showered upon
this ledger, and Mr.. McGraw, for the first
time, appreciated his dealings with COM
mercial women, who were willing to spend
money were there was considerable to be
made by it. This excellent women ever
endeavored to put an air of smartness in
to Maggie's wardrobe, and garnished her
cloak with crimson trimming. Maggie
were the cloak, but her face was sadly out
of keeping with the brave garment. She
had grown so much more snbdued, and so
! much older in her manner and ap-
pearance, that Mr.. McGraw felt more
at ease in her society, and of the two he
began to appear the brighter, and wore
an air of briskness and vigor that went
far to make up for his mature years. His
lawyers declared that never, in the whole
course Of their experience, had they seen
a man possessed with such admirable
philosophy.
CAT least five thousand pounds swept
away with this unlucky sailor, and Nc
Graw never murmurs about it, said one
of the legal gentleman.
"Adversity seems to soften him, re-
piled the other. she hasn't cursed any
body or anything for SIX months
ssStlll he don feel crushed or oldened
by the blow
son the contrary he gets younger every
day.
Which really was fact. Happiness
was an extraordinary renovator to Mr..
McGraw,. and the neighbors declared
kindly that he and Maggie looked very
well together. "Oh. a man is always
young If he's got means" they would
add.
As the months went by, it began to be
generally conceded by all concerned that
Mr.. McGraw was "paying attention to
Maggie, and she'was treated with that
rare consideration that her good luck de-
manded.
The only caeature who appeared utter
ly ignorant of the situation was poor
Maggie herself, who had never for a mo-
ment forgotten her dead sailor, or ceased
reviving his memory to Mr.. McGraw, who
seemed the only one that could fully
sympathize with her and console her.
Prodded on by the encouraging hints and
illusions of the girls mother, Mr.. Nc
Graw had endeavored to infuse into his
manner something of the bearing of a
lover, but Maggie invariably received
these advances with the gentle gratitude
that had become part Of her nature, and
Mr.. McGraw instinctively shrank from
anything that might shock her delicacy,
or estrange her from him. He resolved
to bide his time, winning gradually all
of her heart that was left from the
possession of the dead sailor, and
accustoming her to the practice Of
associatlng their lives together, teaching
her to lean upon him, and seek from him
what happiness she could call her own.
Then when some happy moment arrived
when he could WIN her to share her life
with him, he would trust to his own ex-
ertions to win her love. Life was weary
burden in the old boarding house, COM
pared to the luxury he could offer her.
Then he could see that he was making
himself necessary to her.
One morning, as they stood on the long
pier and looked out at sea, he said to the
girl clingiug to his arm.
"Shall you be sorry, my dear, to. see
me one of these days sailing away from
you in ship like that one over yondsr,
perhaps never to look upon your sweet
face again?"
She said not word, but chung closer
to his arm, and two big tears stole silent
ly from those great mournful eyes. He
took courage then to put his arm about
her-not but that it had often been there
before, but that was in fatherly sort of
way.
"Would you be afraid, Maggle,It to cross
the sea with me?'' he SAID.
"Afraid2" she replied, 81 never could
be afraid OF the sea-"