Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-11-05


cleaning. The tiny girl we saw had beel
suffering with a severe cough for 81:
months, and they could do nothing for he
but watch her fade away before thei
eyes"
''What did you adviser"
81 persuaded them to take the little on
to the Children's hospital, where have
friend-and a noble, good woman she is
who is director. There the little thin!
was put straight to bed, as she needed tt
be, ard nursed day and night as she neve
could have been at home"
'With what result?"
81 have letter to-day from the matron
who tells me my patient has grown plump
as partridge, and will be discharged IL
three weeks more, completely cured The
father has procured steady work in the
country, and takes his family there this
week. Let us change the subject. Dc
you go bathing?"
"No; l am afraid"
"Of Stingarees?' She laughed meIrily,
and before he could finish his explanation
somebody had come up and swept her of
1 on search for sea ferns, whose delicate
| froEds were borne in by the tide.
I He stood for an instant irreso1u ute. Two
crushing revelations dawned upon him in
that moment. He had learned to appreci-
ate at last this noble, sympathetic woman;
and he knew, by swift unerring intuition,
that she despised him. He asked himself
what else he could have expected. A man
irreverent of age, indifferent to the suffer-
ings of childhood. and, above all, cow
ardl He summed up his credentials with
bitter laugh, as he flung himself down
on the beach.
| After this passage-at-arms they mutually
avoided each other. Save when they met
face to face, they never exchanged glance
of recognition. Yet both were resolved to
conclude the season at San Pedro. One
day Miss Langdon rode down to Whining
ton to take the train for Los Angeles. She
left her little sister in the care of friends at
the beach, with many charges and cautions,
which the child promised to heed.
Early that afternoon David Woodbury.
wandered along at the foot of the cliffs,
chipping away at the rocks with small
pick he carried. He was something of an
amateur geelogist, and there was some sin
gular, amber-like crystals imbedded in the
rocks, when he had determined to subject
to microscopic analysis. Absorbed in his
task, he was aroused by the sound Of a
lady's voice close by:
| w Hdt 10 III HuOt0iluS Ou Iuo GOp VI tuftI
rock, Henry? Is it bird? Give me that
glass and let me see."
'sNO, my dear, my eyes are better than
yours. l will look. By heavens! 1t is a
child.''
| A little child out on ntrrow point of
rocks, with surging sea all around and
the tide coming in! Every one understood
how it must have happened, recalling the
chain of moss grown rocks, that lifted their
heads above the sea at the ebbing of the
tide and over which the more venturous
| had sometimes clambered, every YES
tige of which was now effaced by the sea.
The few men about dazed at the sight. No
boat could make passage of those sharp
and treacherous rocks, and strong swim
mers dared not breast the pltiless swell Of
the tide maddened to fury by its rocky bar
riers.
One man sat his teeth firmly together at
the sight. Years ago, in his college days,
he had been a daring swimmer. Once be-
fore lie had breasted just s-ch sea to
reach boat which had overturned with
three men. AS David Woodbury. threw
off his coat he remembered the parting ad-
monition of his Hawaiian physician:
'You are all right now, my boy; but
guard vigilantly against any sudden shock
OF V1Ol6IlL cAcTClSe OI any Klnu.
He mustered all the nerve within him to
meet and bear without reco.I the plunge
into the boiling element. Once breasting
the waves, his strength came back, and he
battled with vigor he had never known
before. Flung now against some rocks,
which bruised his limbs or tore his hands;
now sucked down by some eddying current,
which all his strength only sufficed to con-
quer; now faint with the shock of some
mighty, incoming breaker, he reach, at
last, the rock where a little girl clung in
fright, and took her in his arms and soothed
her until her wild sObs ceased. He be-
thought himself then of what he had not
recalled before-that between this rock and
the breakwater, which afforded safe re-
treat to shore, lay comparatively open
stretch Of sea. And so, plunging again in
to the water, carefully supporting the little
one, but swimming with long, mastery
strokes, he bore his precious burden safely,
at last, to shore.
As he stepped upon the beech Stella
Langdon met him with outstretched arms.
Silently he placed the child within them,
and she received it without a word; but he
was strangely stirred by the one full look
that fell from her brown eyes like beni-
son upon him A hero in dripping gar
ments, he stood among the idlers upon the
beach, all deeply moved, as even shallow
natures will be, by the sight of truly gal
liant deed.
He tried to meet their ELUSIVE praise
with easy Indifference, to make light on the
perils through which he had passed. But a
choking sensation in his throat ovel power
ed him; a weakness, which was more than
the faintness of exhaustion, seized upon
| h or,I ,Ot l. 4
in crimson flood from mouth and nostrils.
Stella Langdon, sitting within her tent,
and softly crying over her little sister as
she removed her wet garments, lifted her
face with sudden palor as she heard the
measured tramp of men carrying heavy
burden and a voice saying, regretfully:
| "Poor fellow! He's done for this time"
III.
If he had been taken to an ordinary hab.
itation, and there submitted to the confined
atmosphere, unnatural restraint and artifi-
ciaI remedies which invalids are usually
obliged to undergo, it is doubtful if he
would have survived the ordeal. But after
he had been placed upon the comfortable
bed in his tent, the physician who had been
summoned wisely concluded that it would
be dangerous to run the risk of removal
hnei 81 nc lay III Iuo Opcu ali, tn6 cOol sea
breezes finding their way through many a
rift in the canvas. Close contact with
Mother Nature accomplished more than doc
tors or physic, and, after several weeks of
rest and quiet, the inward tissues that had
been ruptured did their work of healing, and
he rose from his couch, if not absolutely
sound, with chance for long life about as
good as the average mans.
The season at San Pedro was unusually
prolonged that year. More than one party
of campers fingered on, 10th to leave while
the life of this brave young fellow hung in
the balance. The Langdons fingered
among the rest, and when, one day late in
September, David Woodbury. finally emerg-
ed from his tent, walking somewhat feebly
at first, he did not disdain to stay himself a
little by the noble strength Of the young
girl whose arms he had taken.
Slowly they strolled along the beach, and
various gay troupes nodded smiling approval
as they passed. He drew her at length to a
little nook in the cliffs sheltered from the
wind. Below them great breakers beat
themselves upon the rocks with sullen
roar The sharp outlines of the mountain
L ILL