The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-03-05
HOW THE SHIP CAME IN.
CHAPTER |.

HWell, Meg, / agreel, 10 take o LOGGER ~
day for the summer, so you'd best beslil
yourself and get the room up stairs ready
He'll be along by afternoon some time,
expect
( Who is ii, father9"
oh, one of these painter chaps. met
him down at the shore, and he told me that
he had taken fancy TO our place because
it was perched up high. A civil enough
fellow, and plenty Of money in his pocket
I'll warrant" --
Then he'll be very badly Oft here
there's nothing like what he's used to-
said the girl
@Never you mind ABOUT that. He's GOT
notion of coming, and mean to have
him; it'll pay. SO get the room ready, dye
hear?"
She nodded half sullen assent, and the
man strobe brskly out of the door of the
little cottage, near which he had been
standing while they talked, and soon disap
peafed below the brow OF the hill on which
the house stood They had just breakfast
ed, and the meal, as were most Of theii
meals, had been eaten in silence, almost
gloomily. 1thad only been at the very end
OF it that he had chosen to make the briei
announcement that has just been recorded
That was all he thought needful to say
that he had agreed to take ledger, and
that he might be looked for before night
fall. No word Of consultation no pleasant
commonplace phrase about her extra work
or trouble. Why should he do more than
he had always doneY
His daughter had never been to him
u,1 In h,,t q ht1 r1a M MI
sance; since she had been old enough, 8
mere drudge. He was not brutal to her in
the coarser and more material ways. He
never struck her, or stinted her of food
he was, even in his grutf way, liberal tc
her, and had she chosen she could have
had as good clothes as any girl in the
neighboring village of Kempton But she
did not seem to care for fine clothes, or in
deed for anything. They lived few miles
from the village, and almost directly on the
sea, in 3 little cottage perched upon bleak
cliff, isolated rather by its position than dis
lance Jacob Anderson combined sort Of
rough farming with the occupations OF
fisherman and boatnan, and between them
managed to make his living. He and his
daughter were not popular among ther
neighbors, When his wife had died, soon
after his settlement there. and left this little
girl toddling about, the women folk of the
vicinity had made kindly offers of help tc
the lonely man in rearing his little one
buthe was grutf and ungracious, and the
child seemed even then to partake of his
unsociable nature. So the luke.warm, me
chanical interest that motherless child
had naturally awakened died away, and
Anderson and his little girl were left &c
themselves.
When little Meg grew up into woman
hood, and took charge of the house, hei
dulles as purchaser and providcr occasion.
ally led her into the little village. Some
of the older women, who remembered hei
mothers pale face and had daughters o.
their own, sought TO draw her into their lit
tic circle, and in their way would have
been kind TO her; but she had in no way
responded to their advances. but rather re
buffed them, which was not hard to do
She was neither pretty nor attractive, moi
the sort of creature to whom the world nat
urally pays court, so they let her drop
again.
"a disagreeable girl, )" the neighbors said
"she might 90 her own way if she liked
So she did.
There was nothing very strange abou,
4. Meg Anderson, nothing very original; and
had she been born to a different lot, no one
would have called her remarkable, per
haps, but some one would have loved
her, and she would certainly not have been
called disagreeable. She was only very
sensitive, reserved woman, with capacity
for deep feeling; with quick, delicate per.
ceptions and fine ways Of feeling things
that would have made very pretty femi-
nine critic of her had she been cultivated
with an innate love Of refinement and sus
ceptibility to sensuous impressions, such as
we often see combined in the upper class Of
society, and which make woman attract
i've and lovable, but in no way remarkable
But Meg's life had been negative in its edu
cation, and for the most part had consisted
of suppression rather than development
30 that the germs that would have blossom
ed into the delicate, fragrant flowers of re
finement and quick, sensitive appreciation
were stunted and dwaried into sort of sui
len reserve and brooding, halfconsciou!
discomfort. 1t was only that most common
of all stories, the wrong person in III,
wrong place; SO common that one scarcel,
gifts cry out and make the pity of il evi
dent and vivid TO us as we pass by
Poor little Meg! She had never known
any one better than, OF indeed any one s,
good as herself in any way; and the tw,
men, her father and one other, with whom
she had come into as close contact as he
nature permitted, we're not only her in
fcriors, but Of different kind. Thei
thoughts were not her thoughts, nor thei
feelings her feelings. To say that she live
NJ In world apart would scarcely be true
itwould be nearer tile truth TO say that sh
lived dlmly conscious that there was
world somewhere In which she would b
more at home than In the one which SCENE
70 contain all she was likely to know {
human nature; for this other man, hi
Foster, was likely 10 marry her. In h
rough way coarscly and soullessly, i
liked her well; had said as much to h,
father; and her father had sign6ed TO h,
once or twice thar some day or other Bi
Foster would ask her to be his wife, ar
lktINlt itt IN