The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-01-05
GOOD ADVICE"
THE STORY OF A MISTAKE.

THE STORY OF A MISTAKE.
Rising and falling on the sparkling
waters some two miles distant from
coast-line which is the glory of the
beautiful Channel Islands, FLASHING
musically in rhythmic consonance with
the wave-beat family audible from the
bolder-strewn shore, floats the Lively
Polly, taut little Guernsey fishing
boat, occupied by two men-David
Syvret, it's master, and Lionel Hardy,
a wandering member of the great
brotherhood of the brush. One of
these, a brOad-shouldered and stalwart
islander of some fifty years of age,
whose honest bronzed face seems to
have absorbed into itself much of the
sunlight which for nine months of the
year sheds itself prodigally upon Moulin
Huet bay, is occupied in selecting mus
sells from shining black heap banked
up under the forward thwart of the
boat, scraping them free of oar
weed, and serving them up as
bait for the somewhat fastidiOus
whiting pout and codling, into whose
cool haunts, fifteen fathons below,
they are temptingly lowered. The
other, an active, vivaciOus, resolute-
looking young fellow of ive.and-
twenty, is lOlling back in the stern in
a very ecstasy of enjoyment, airily
posing in his hand horn of ice-cold
water drawn from the famed well of
st. Martin, in which he has been
pledging successfully the island, and
the bay, and the boat, and letting his
eye roam approximately from headland
to headland and reef to reef.
"And now for our last toast, David
the Guernsey Lily! ~ he says, rever-
emily.
"Miss Doris, God bless her ~ ex-
claims David, draining his glass ; and
his young companion, joining him,
gazes over the waters, and apparently
finding the Guernsey Lily too sacred
flower to be dilated on, relapses into a
dreamy abstraction, and remains lost
in thought, while David gathers
together the finny spoil, hauls in the
kedge and finally sets the mainsail.
Let Doris hold up her sweet face
and in all her graciousness be intro
duced to the gentle reader. Fair and
slim and beautiful is the maiden whom
young Lionel Hardy has alluded to as
the Guernsey Lily; goddess among
the island fisher-folk; hedged in with
a divinity begotten of kindly actions
and quick sympathies; the possessor of
a love-compelling face, with eyes of
sun-flecked hazel, of shade as where
the golden rays strike through inter
laced branches and penetrate to the
darkling underground Of stem and TO
liage; and with lips from which pro-
ceeds laugh, pure and fresh, and mu-
steal as one of the streams which
gurgle around the pebbles of her own
Guernsey water-lanes.
Moulin Huet village had known and
loved her for now close upon ten years;
for just that period had elapsed since
DIR. Awdry, her father, an antiquarian
and scholar. had lost the better part of
his fair fortune, and had brought her
over O settle in the island, and to be-
come the light of beautiful, old fash
Toned Bella Luce farm, the house he
had made his home. There Doris
reigned supreme and held mimic court,
receiving Populations of the village
children, distributing her bounty, SUI
perintending the daily operations Incl
dental to the maintenance of two AL
derry cows and host of shock-headed
chickens, fitting to and fro in her crisp
cotton frock among her roses and pico-
tees. Thus at Bella Luce she lived, and
worked, and won the love of all about
her, seeing little of society, yet too
busy in ministering to the wants of
those among whom her lot was cast,
and attending to her father, to feel
! otherwise than content.
And latterly strange new element
had entered her life, that seemed likely
to give it a wider scope and deeper
meaning. Into the garden one sunny
spring day. when she was delving
with her trowel among the flowers,
there had strolled young Lionel Hardy,
the bearer of letter of introduction
to her father from some distant rela-
ton; as frank and debonnaire young
wielder of the brush and mahl-stick as
had ever spoiled yard Of good can
vas.
From the hour Of that eventful