The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-09-15
Peace lifted her flushed face and kissed

II got0ng a. 1ell as the malnmaSt, by s0oofRe3
Hand :as thin as. 3 shadow. Don't they give
lyon anything to eat, Peace Pc il
d Plenty guardy:: but growing girls are
tnlways thin-Mrs. Lee says so.s And now
land?"
| Bushels of things, Peace. They'll lie
here by and by. How does the learning
progress? Let us hear you at the piano.
Peace sat down and ratified off polkas and
waltzes. 49, -.
4And can read French, guardy." whirl-
ing round on the STOOL; and draw pencil
drawing, you know, and do fancy work. I
like everything. And Ruardy, when grow
up and ON young lady, and my education
is finished, want you to ft up the cabin
of the Lovely Lass with Brussels carpet,
and piano, and heaps of new novels, and
take me to sea with you all the time until
I'm an old woman, won't your"
OF course Captain Storms devoutly PROM
| ised, and rose up to take his leave.
I'm going to China this voyage, he
said, pulling her long brown braids: If
see papa I'm to give him his little girls
love, suppose"
"Ah! if you only would see him!" Peace
cried, clasping her hands. Darling papa!
Guardy, he used to be in Hong Kong,
know. Try if you can find him for me
when you 60 there"
Captain Storms promised this also, and
departed. Peace chung to him sobbing at
the last. you'll write to me often this
time, won't you, dear, dear Ruardy? You
only sent me one little stingy letter laat
time, you know"
All right, Peace, the captain said. I'll
try. l never was anything OF a scribe, but
this time I'll do my best.''
So once again the captain of the LOVELY
Lass left hia little girl, to sail merrily over
the world; and once more Peace went back
to her horn book and fancy work.
But thes.months strung themselves out,
and the years rolled slowly backward, and
Captain Storms, sailing to and fro in gold
en- eastern and southern chimes, never came
to take his little girl from school. His let
| tiers were few and far between, despite his
promises, only six letters in six long years,
and in answers he had at least received
sixty.
But the sixth and last announced his
! coming, and told her the wonderful news
that he had met her father in Hong Kong,
and that she must be ready to 20 with him
next voyage to China.
Captain Storms, hale and brown, and
handsome despite his 1niddle-age, rang
Mrs. Lee door-bell, and strobe like sun.
burnt giant. into the boarding school par
lor.
''But of course she couldn't know I was
coming" he thought, as he sent up his
name; poor little girl, I hope she'll be glad
to see guardy.
{ The door opened, and a young lady
walked in. A tall, and stately, and grace
full young lady, with a dark, handsome
face, and waves of sunny brown hair.
Surely, this was not Little Peace"
MY dear guardian, welcome back! Oh,
how happy am to see you once more!''
Yes, Peace. beyond doubt; put, oh,tso
unutterably changed. Captain Storms red
dened under his brown skin, and actually
! stammered.
You surely know me, I see," she smiled
/ brightly. II dare say have grown out of
I all reason. An taller than the mainmast
now? was almost as tall, if you remem-
! Der, six years ago."
/ She rscollected what he had said all
! these years, and Captain Storms face
] beamed.
Il expected to see my little Peace and I
4 find young lady SO stately and womanly
1 that am at a loss what to say to her. I'm
| not used to ladies' society, you see."
go, She laid her hand on his arm, and looked
up In his honest sailor face with deep,
\ sweetly shining eyes. y
Talk to me as you used to and call me
Little Peace. All, guardy, how I have
loneed for your coming. And my father
tell me of him."
\ Captain Storms told her how. by merest
1 accident, they bad met; how he was rich
4 and lonely and longing for her, but unable
Y to come to America; how she was to return
B with him, and that the steward of the Love-
4 ~ Lass was to take out his wife with
him to wait upon her. And Peace
listened, like one in peaceful dream. It
\ was being heroine it was living chap
ter out of one of her pet novels to romantic
\ Peace.
sothey sailed for that far-off land of c.
1estial tea and pig tails, Captain Storms and
his handsome ward. And Peace and her
fairy dreams realized, and there was brus-
sells carpet in the cabin, and a piano and
lots Of new novels; and she was happy as
as the days we're long. Her music filed
\ the Lovely Lass with sweetest melody; her
clear voice rang out over the purple mid
! night eea, in songs sweeter than the siren
strains of the mermaids; and her beauti-
full face lit up the grim. old ship
/ like the summer sunshine itself. Peace
7 was bright and bewitching, and happy as
4 bird. The sailors adored her as an angel of
1 light; and the captain-ah! the captain
\ adored her too. Sailing along, by day and
4 by night, through days of amber sunshine
and nights of misty moonlight, to that dis
tant land, Captain Storms, in his forty
second year old enough and big enough
4 to know better fell madly, and desperate
", and redioulously in love. He, lost his
4 sleep, and he lost his appetite; and he
\ hung on o girls foolish words, and existed
only in the radiance of pair of laughing,
a-girlish eyes.
Fool that am for my pains!" he thought
4 sometimes, in bitter moodiness; II am
more than double her age; and am rough,
/ and black, and weather beaten as the tim
bers Of my oldship. No, no. Harry Storms;
4 the only wife for you, my boy, is the
Lovely Lass"
And yet, sometimes he wildly hoped.
She talked to him so happily, she smiled
upon him so sweetly, she was ever so glad
when he came, so regretted when he went.
] And girls of eighteen had married men of
! forty five before now; and. oh, why should
it not happen again. and Harry Storms be
the most blessed among men?
! They reached China they reached Hong
Kong-and Peace was folded in her faith
err arms. 49,
$50 like your mother, he said, his tears
falling. "Oh, my child! So like your
raotherr'
| Captain Storms was to spend three weeks
|
never again. He made the most of his stay,
I visiting Peoce every day in her palatial
home, and growing moodier and moodier
with every visit. Peace. too, dropped a
little and looked at him wistfully, and lost
some of that bright happiness that made
I her the light Of both places. And when
the last day carae and he stood to say good
by, she broke down altogether, and cried
like, very child. ~ -. -
said; you who have savel my life! Oh,
Captain Storms, must you go2"
| And then that bashful giant took heart of
grace, as q landsman would have done
weeks before. .sI ; T
20 II must co." said he; "but We need not
part, my darling Peace, if You say SO; for I
love you dearly; and if sou will be my wife,
we will sail together, forever and ever. as
you once wished, until our heads grow
gray, Mine is not far from it now" he
added, ruefully. ,sgz.,
| Rut Poaco had fhroun har q r,,n,a a1sSl,pnAr,