Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-11-10

SO, Inese eaIIdreH nAd already deeided vAds
vds 70 bsdoHs, and actually, incredible as
II seemed to the simple-minded old sailor,
Brenda went on TO tell her wond9r-stricken
father, in quiet, gentle manner, sjust
like her poor mother" he used afterwards
to say, and yet with some becoming
maidenly blushes, which made her look
ten times prettier than ever, that Steenie
was going to seek employment on some
merchantyessel, where his superior educa-
tion e. thanks to you, my own, dear, good
father" was here adroitly inserted) would
speedily enable him TO rise to the position
of mate, and, as soon as he was twenty-one,
not before. he was TO return to Alstene and
claim Brenda as his bride. In the mean.
time they would correspond, with her
fathers permission, and after four years
patient constancy, she knew that her own
dear, darling father, would never be able
to refuse to consent -to-their-their-
marriagel Out it came, in downright,
sober earnest and is it surprising that the
old gentleman should have started so
violently at this climax, that his faithful
pipe, the companion of years, lay in frag-
ments at his feet?
Another night of walking and smoking,
communing with his old friends the waves,
and finally, with many mutterings, amongst
which were distinguishable q few such
broken phrases as raked fore and aft by
Jupiterl " "boarded and captured" "haul
down your colors," q" the old ships taken"
etc, etc, Lieutenant johnson, late of the
Royal Navy, knocked the ashes out of his
pipe and sought the shelter of his own roof.
Three weeks later, Brenda and her father
are standing on the summit of the rocky,
sea-girt promontory, watching a fishing
smack fast disappearing in the shadow Of
the neighboring island. Once more the
tall, graceful figure of the lad stands erect
the blue cap waves again, the girls white
handkerchief is raised in dumb response,
her father calculates goodbye lad, God
bless you," and Steenie is gone.
Poor Brenda clings, blinded with tears,
to her fathers arm, and the old gentleman
feels queer choking in his throat as they
sadly turn away and follow the rocky path.
way down to their cottage home.
CHAPTER II.
Three years have elapsed since we left
our heroine and her father watching
Steenie's departure, and to poor Brenda it
seems like lifetime. The first twelve
months passed rapidly enough. Brenda
was determined to be cheerful for her
fathers sake, and then every month or two
would come q missive from the outer
world-a long, loving letter from Steenie.
First from Glasgow, then from the Cape of
Good Hope on his way to China, another
from Shanghai, and so on back to Glasgow.
But Glasgow was a long way off in those
haVa and har aaitnr could crapI
neither time nor money to visit Alstene and
his sweetheart and in few short months
he is off again. The second year begins,
and letter from far off Australia speaks
hopefully and encouragingly of his pros
poets. The third mate has left the shin in
poor health, and Steenie is appointed acting
mate on the return voyage. Thanks to the
old lieutenant's instructions III mathe-
mates and navigation, he is the only one
can take the place. Then six long months
without letter, long, weary months of
anxious suspense, under which Brenda,
despite her best efforts, begins to pine, and
her father to fret. AT last there comes a
letter from New York. On the way home
from Australia they had been wrecked, and
after many days cruising in open boats,
suffering hunger and thirst and disease, the
crew had been picked up by an American
vessel bound to South American port,
thence around Cape Horn to New York,
whence he hoped soon to return to Liver
pool or Glasgow. Soon after another letter
from Liverpool Steenie has shipped to
Australia as third mate, and is in the best
of spirits. Good news enough, and yet
Brenda has read that letter, the last she has
received, over and over again. From the
very first there was a tone in it she did not
like. Something that gave her a vague
feeling of unrest. Every time she has read
it she has passed wakeful, restless night,
and finally, as time has passed away,
month after month, and still no news from
Steenic, the poor girls heart has ached as
only a loving woman's heart can ache.
Hope deferred has made her heart sick.
And what of her father? He thinks of the
time when he left his child a baby in her
mothers arms to take his place once more
on the quarterback of one of .Englands
"Wooden walls" A step undertaken for
the sake of that little one, for father and
mother both have concluded that, now one
more has to be provided for, the halfpay
income will not meet all expenses, and
something must be laid away for their old
age and Brenda's education, and Lieutenant
johnson obtains o commission at sea once
more. The old man thinks as he looks at
Brenda now, that she reminds him more
and more Of the young mother whom he
left that day to see again no more in this
world, and many bitter thought passes
through his mind of the boy who owes all
he is to the fostering care of Brendas
mother and to his teaching, and whose
heartlcssness (he thinks the word though
he does not say iO is robbing his child OF
all her blthesome, cheerful ways.
Alstene is changed little, too. Very
much, the villagers think, for life-boat
station has been established there, under
the care of the old lieutenant, and q
steamer, the first the inhabitants ever saw,
has touched there regularly once month
for nearly year past, and newspapers and
such evidences of civilization have found
their way to this secluded spot, and there
is talk OF establishing pOstoffice, and
Grannie Saunders is dead and gone. She
had lived long enough, she said, when she
found vessels on the ocean run by fire and
boiling water like an old wifes teapot.
So things logged along at Alstene until,
finally the great anniversary in Brenda's
life came round-one to which she had
looked forward as the one shining beacon
in her narrow sphere. Stccnie had been
of age two weeks in few days more she
would be twenty, and four years ago to a
day she had hidden him farewell. The
early dinner at the cottage was over, the
old lieutenant had had his nap, and Brenda
was preparing as usual to read the news
paper last received to her father, when he
suddenly stopped her. Taking her face
between his hands. the old man bent his