Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1885-02-06
The Lighthouse Keeper
A STORY OF THE SEA.

'The fog is as thick as ever, IA
ther.'
'Yes, but it won't last, Lizzie.
The glass is steadily falling, and we
shall have plenty of wind ere long,
most likely from the southeast
That's a fair wind for the Gan
net soliloQuized Lizzie, half aloud,
as her thoughts wandered off to her
sailor lover, Archie Lowell, who
after years absence-was daily
expected in New York.
'Ah, Archie has forgotten you
long ere this, said the fond father,
to tease his daughter, who only
laughed and retreated into the
clearer atmosphere of the single
but small and cosy upper apartment
of the lofty lighthouse.
Before following her to ascend to
the lamp room to light up for the
night, Richard Lee stood for mo-
ment on the narrow iron balcony
that surrounded the tower, to OBJ
serve the weather. He could not
see far scarcely to the middle Ol
the narrow and tapering erection
The pinnacled rock on which it was
built, fully a hundred and twenty
feet below, was invisible. Nor could
he trace the other rocks of the ledge
of which it was the termination
that stretched thence to the cOas
of New England, half a mile dis
tant. The fog-cloud in which the,
were enveloped, extended for mile
either way, and far out at sea.
The lighthouse had been erected
to warn vessels about to round al
adjacent sharp bend of the coast
to avoid the dangerous rocks 0;
which disastrous wrecks we're fire
quent.
Lee had been keeper of this light
house for twenty years. He ha,
received the appointment only o.
the proviso of his marriage. Thi
accomplished, for his application
for the position had been mad
solely to provide a home for wife
he settled down to the mOnOtOnOu
life of a night watchman. But lOv
softened its sameness and tediun
For Mary was one of those genia
and happy natures that look rathe
to the dark side of life, and she
the sunshine of their own heart o
everything and everybody wit
whom they come in contact. lie
home was small, but she madeit hal
py. Her sphere of duty was limited
but she filed it tOperfectiOn. Lee
choice of a wife-a selection nc
always or altogether LOTTERY
proved to be in every way wise an
discriminating. 1t was neithe
hastily made nor hurriedly cOnsuu
mated.
Their mutual happiness was il
creased, if that we're possible, b
Lizzie's birth, two years after. An
their life flowed on for eight year
as uneventfully and unvarying
the currents of the ocean on who's
bosom they lived. For the succe
= of his lighthouse, placed there
an experiment, had been cOmplet
No disaster had occurred since /
light had warned the navigator
away from the dangerous rocks
which it stood.
Lees duties were merely rOuti
. and mechanical to keep the ligI
clear and bright, and occasional
!. go for their periodic supply Of pr
visions; but never yet the sad o
of rescuing shipwrecked castawa
on the iron bound coast.
But, then, his household sky b
came overcast. To his inteh
grief, Mary died suddenly of a 10
latCat maladyj leaving her husbal
alone with his little girl. And
nav'sas we'll that he had her to soft
nnsss sorrow with her innocent pratt
The gid winning ways
look arLizsie resembled her moth
der. hcb, especially in her happy d
y "a s"1 '1,sltIOn; soon supplied her pla
her fathers small establlshmel
Lhe lbscane as necessary a compa