The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-10-07
ssKITTY."

1
ssKITTY."
The Idler was hopelessly becalmed
off Thomas Point. Not ripple could
be seen down the Chesapeake, and the
locusts and pines along the shore were
shuddering uncomfortably with the heat
of July afternoon, hidden halfway to
their tops in the summer haze. What was
to be done? Five miles from home in a
sloop yacht filled with strangers from
the North, the crew left behind to be
out of the way, and every one thorough
ly convinced that his neighbor was
horribly bored!
Thornton gave the tiller q vicious
shove, as if that would wake the yacht
up, and glared forward along the row
of parasols 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 flirtations
were becoming desperate. Mollie
Brogden, comfortably lodged against the
mast, was dropping her blue 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 becoming really
alarmed.
The situation was maddening! Moth
ing on board to eat; soft-shell crabs and
the best bill of fare of Southern kitchen
ordered at home for seven o'clock; a
couple of tiddlers coming from 1.-the
Swamp at nine; and Cousin Susan,
the cook, even then promising little
Stump Neal "all de bonyclaba he GU d
stow eff he'd jest friz dis var cream fo'
de new missis."
1T is too provoking for anything"
the new missis whispered to Thornton,
as he 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 carelessnes
forward. Very little consolation he
got there. Ellis from Annapolis
said he had known Gains last
two days, and sundry forci-
bic remarks were made when it was
discovered that the last cigars were
then in our mouths. This was the last
straw. Thornton felt furious with every
one, and muttered dark wishes that
ante-war power might be restored to
him over the person of Uncle Brian
when we got home-if we ever did-as
he reflected that that ancient African
had guaranteed breeze.
Mollie BrOgden smiled lazilv at him
as Donaldson famed her slowly, and
waited until Thornton should pass, SO
that the talk which was leading up to
the inscription Of clever piece of poet
ry on her fan might be continued.
''By the way, Donaldson" as a sud-
den inspiration seemed to strike Thorn
ton, "did you ever hear anything more
of Kitty after l 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
a look assured Donaldson that certain
words had better have been left unsaid
that afternoon if kitty" should not be
satisfactorily explained. felt sorry for
him, for every one caught at the idea
of something new, and the thought of
an explanation to the whole of that
boat-load, keen for all sorts of badi-
mage. would have tempted me over
board, l am sure. However, Donald
son smiled very composedly, 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 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 knew he had come down to Thorn
toms expressly to see her. and he
assured us it was a very small story,
but if we cared to hear it perhaps the
breeze would come meanwhile, and he
would try to give the facts exactly as
they had come to his knowledge.
+" We were few hours out from Liv-
he began, "and the smoking
room of the Russia was pretty we'll
filled with all sorts of men, none of
whom of course felt much at home vet.
but who were gradually being shaken
together by the civilizing influence of
tobacco and the occasional lurches that
the cross-chop of the Channel was favor
ing us with. l was sitting near the
door with a man from Boston whom I
found on board returning from a we'd
ding-trip, and who, l discovered, had
taken orders since leaving. Harvard,
where l had known him slightly as a
boOkish sort of fellow and not yerv
but as 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 round US, when somebody
laid hand on my shoulder and one Of
the most attractive voices l ever heard
asked If there was room for a stranger
from TexasP This formal announce
ment of himself by newcomer made q
little lull in the conversation, but my
friend made room for him in our corner,
and he quietly enveloped himself in
smoke for the rest of the evening.
"He was not inattentive, though, to
the drift OF our talk, for when Hamil-
ton mentioned having been at the Pam
Anglican, and spoke of the effect such
should produce, the Tex
ans 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 Ia
Junta any better if it had not been for
Kitty. You know what Junta was be-
lore she cameP' he continued, seeing
us look little surprised. nothing but
cards and drink, and-worse; and now
and he laid his hand on his hip as If
from habit-'now we have no trouble
there any more
1.-The oddness of the expression Bible
men, l remember. struck me at the time,
but Hamilton made some explanatory re-
ply, for the quiet force of the soft voice
had certain persuasiveness about it
without the aid of his gesture, although
he smoke was 80 thick that we could not