Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-06-18
BACK AGAIN.

The sea laSheS the coast with It's
short and mountainous waves. Little
white clouds pass very quickly across
the great blue sky, swept on by the
wind, like birds; and the village, IN
the wrinkle of the little valley sloping
towards the ocean, warns in the
sun.
At the very entrance to it stood the
house of Martin Levesque, all alone
oy the edge of the road. A humble
fsherman's dwelling it was, with
walls of clay, and a matched roof
plumed with iris flowers. It had a
garden not bigger than q pocket
handkerchief, in which some onions,
cabbages, parsnips and chervil were
growing. A hedge divided It from
the road
The man was always fishing, and
his wife, seated by the doorway, was
busy repairing the meshes of a great
brown net, spread against the wall
like an immense cobWeb. A girl of
fourteen, seated IN a chair propped
back SO that she could lean her back
against the fence, was occupied In
mending underwear, already over
darned and patched. Another girl,
younger by a year, held in her arms
a very young child, not yet able to
speak or gesticulate, and two urchins,
whose ages might be two and four
years, sitting fiat upon the ground
face to face, were playing at garden
nag with their clumsy little hands
and throwing dirt into each others
eyes.
Nobody spoke. Only the child
which the young girl was trying to
put to sleep cried continuously IN a
little sharp voice. A cat slept 10 the
window, and at the foot of the wall
extended veritable cushion of white
gillyfowers, about which buzzed a
whole tribe of bees.
All of sudden the girl sewing
near the gate cried out: "Mamam
The mother answered: "What is it?'
Here he is againr
The whole family had been uueas y
since early morning because of man
who had kept prowllng about the
house-an old man VINO looked like
a beggar. They first saw him while
they were going to the boat house to
see father off. He was then sittin 9
by the ditch, directly IN front of the
door. When taey cane back from
the beach he was still there, looking
at the house.
He seemed sick and very miserable.
He haa not budged for more than an
hour; then, finding that he was watch
ed like a malefactor, he had risen to
his feet and gone away, dragging his
legs heavily as he walked.
But after awhile the girls saw him
coming back, walking with the same
slow and weary step, and sat down
again-this time little further Off
and kept watching them.
Tae mother and her girls began tc
feel afraid. The mother was partlcu
larly worried because she was natur
ally timid, and then her husband,
LevesGue, would not return unit
nightfall.
Her husbands real name was Lev
esque, and hers Martin; and thu
Levesque folks. This was because sh'
had first married sailor named Mar
tin, who used to 60 to Newfoundland
every year to engage IN the cod fish
cries.
After two years of married life sh'
mad daughter growing up, and wa
shortly to become a mother again
when the vessel that her husband ha
shipped on-the Deux>Spurs, a Diepp
three>master- disappeared.
No news was ever heard of her
none of her crew ever returned, so
was generally believed that ske ha
gone down.
La Martin, as folks called her, wait