The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-10-16

made him worse off than poor man
a debtor without a cent in the world.
People talked about his misfortune, but
he said not word to any one. The
next trip of the mail boat carried him
to Edgartown. where he at once repair
ed to the home of his intended bride.
He arrived just in season to see shower
of old shoes and rice thrown out of the
front door upon . little party that was
clustered about . carriage in the street.
The carriage drove rapidly away toward
the harbor as he went in. He inquired
for Mary. Her thin-lipped, gray-eyed
mother struck him down as with q
thunderbolt by announcing that she had
Just been married. Then. while he lis
tened in a dazed sort of way, she told
him coldly that the storm which had in
tercepted Nantucket's mails blew into
Edgartown Bangor ship bound to the
East Indies. She halted for repairs and
her delay was heightened. while the
Captain wooed and won Mrs.
Collins daughter. The ship had sailed
from New York, but was driven out of
her way BY the gale. The Captain
brought ashore late papers, one of
| which contained the account of the loss
of the Cynthia. BY the advice of her
mother, Mrs. Coffin coldly said, Mary
at once concluded to give up the young
grocer. and after three weeks court
| ship she became the stranger Captains
| wife, and had sailed sway with him in
his bonnie ship that very day.
The same norther which bore the false
haartaI IA <virl ont ,,acf thu
painted clay cliffs of Gay Head drove
light fishing dory from the Vineyard
over to Nantucket. In it Was seated
the now broken-hearted Parker. He
| reached Nantucket in the night, and it
is said he was never seen there in the
daylight again. His disappearance was
commented on. but as he had no near
relatives no search was made for him.
The following summer. however, he
| was found installed at Quidnit. in the
little house of to-day, one that hsd been
/; bnilt for wreckers early in the century.
There he lived ever after, a silent man.
The storms fed him with wreckage,
which he pulled up, and which still re-
mains about the castle Nailed up on
the habitation are score of faded gilt
name boards of vessels which have been
driven over the treacherous shoals in
the last half century. Many lives he
| saved by burning fires at the head of
the sheltering little bay near his door
for the guidance of shipwrecked sailors,
and many were the blessings and re-
wards he received. OF himself, now
| ever, he would say nothing. and finally
| his story became as much of mystery
to the fresh generation of natives as to
| the stranger. Twice a year, and always
in the night. he would go into town
and visit the loft of the old Macy store.
| wherein some furniture and papers of
his were slowed. He was always away
from view before daylight and back to
his well-greased little stove and the
single shelf which constituted his pantry.
With the influx of summer visitors the
old hermit sprang into notoriety which
yearly increased. until he became one of
the modern historical features of the
island. His ancient blue-edged plates,
his odd collection of cases and the curl
Gus ''art square in the oaken floor of
his bedroom, made by mailing down cop
per coins. caused him to become speed
lily famous, and drove a paving trade by
pulling up the coins and selling them to
his guests.
Until the last the old man preserved
the sphinx-like mystery which hung
about him. His dead body was found
one bright summer morning sitting up
right in an oaken chair by the fireplace.
A ray of light from the single oiled
paper windows shot over his shoulder
and fell upon the closed Bible upon his
knee. His bowed head was upon his
breast shrouded in white hair, which
reached far below his shoulders, and his
wonderful, heavy, snowy beard rippled
down almost to the floor. He was clad
in his customary threadbsre coarse gar
meuts, the patches on which were piled
one above the other, but stitched with
the neatness and precision of a woman's
hand.
That is Fred Parker's romance"
said a summerer at the Nantucket. IS
he tossed his cigar from the verands and
prepared to ascend to his room. 1t was
late. My boy and myself found the
manuscript of Mary's letters wrapped in
oiled silk under loose brick over the
crockery shelf at the hermitage this sum-
mer. Among the old mans papers at
the store, to which reference was made
on the wrapper, we found the notice of
the loss of the Cynthia. visited my
aunt at Edgartown few weeks ago,
and she supplied missing connections in
the story. as have related"
''What became of Mary?'
mo one knows. The shin never
| came back to this coast, and the Captain
and his wife were last heard from in
Australia. My aunt said it did not
prove happy marriage. "-Nantrcket
(M1ss.) Cor. n. y. Sun.