Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-11-07
CHAPTER ".

INTRODUCES WILLIAM JONES AND HIS FATHHR
MY story IL now bound to follow in the
footsteps Of Matt who, ON quitting the pres
ence Of her artist friend, walked rapidly along
tho sand incumbered road in the direction Of
the sea.
Skirting the lake upon the left band and
still having the ocean Of sandhills upon her
right, she gradually slackeIied her pace. A
spectator, had he been by, would have doubt
less observed that the change WINS owing to
ma DIN meditation; that, in other words,
Matt had fallen into q brown study.
Presently she sat down upon q convenient
stone, or piece OF rock, and, resting her elbows
on hdD knees, her chin in her hands, looked
for some minutes at vacancy. At last she
rose, flushing warmly, and murmuring some
thing to hsrself
The something was to this effect:
"His hands are as white as lady's, when
he pulls Off them gloves, and he said was as
pretty as my picture"
/ can only guess ut the train Of reasoning
which led to this soliloquy, and express my
opinion that Matt had well-dcveloped ideas ON
the subject Of the sexes. True, she was not
above sixteen, and had little or no experience
Of men, none at all Of men who were both
young and good looking Nevertheless, she
was not insensible of the charms Of white
hand, and other tokens Of masculine refine
ment and beauty.
By natural sequence Of ideas she was led
to stretch out her own right hand and look at
It critically. 1t was very brown, and covered
with huge golden freckles The inspection
not being altogether satisfactory, she thrust
both her hands irritably into the pockets of
her jacket, and walked on.
Vaayuy ths, lak halipd har eba folIo,raJ
the road along . swampy hollow, down
which the shallowest OF rivulets crept along
by the sea- now losing Itself altogether in
NOISY patches OF suspicious greenness, again
emerging and trickling with feeble glimmers
over pebble and sand. Presently she left the
road and came upon primitive wooden
bridge, consisting of only one plank, sup
ported on two cairns of stone. Here she
paused, and seeing a red-legged snnd-piper
running about on the edge Of the water iust
below her, made gesture like boys throw
ing a stone, whereon the sand-piper sprang
up chirping, and flew along out of sight.
By this time she was in full sight of the
sea. Dead calm. and covered with ran-col-
ored shadows, it touched the edges of the fiat
sands about mile away, and left one long
creamy line Of changeless foam. The sands
themselves stretched away to the westward
far as eve could see. But to the left and east
ward, that IL to say, in the direction toward
which she was gong, there was a long, rocky
promoutory, with signs of human habita-
ton Breaking into swing-like trot Matt
FASTENED thither, following footpath across
marshy fields.
In due time she came out upon a narrow
and rulely made road which wound along the
rocky promontory, at low water skirting the
sand, at h gh water, the sea. The first house
she reached was a wooden life-boat house ly-
ing down in creek: and it being then low
tide, at some distance from the waters edge.
On the roadside above the house was a flag
star, and beneath the flagstaffa wooden seat.
AL was very still and desolate, without
sign of Efa; but little farther along the
road was row of cottages which seemed in
habited, and were in fact the abodes of the
coastg,iard. Instead Of lingering here Matt
proceeded on her way until she reached
Of village or small town There were
houses on each side of the road some of them
several stories high; but close inspection
showed that most OF them were roofess, that
few Of them possessed any windows or doors,
and that nearly all were decayed and dilapi-
dated from long disuse, while not a few had
a blasted and sinister appearance, es if black
ened by fire And still there was no sign Of
any human soul. Suddenly, however, the street
came to an end, and Matt found herself on .
sort of rocky platform overlooking the sea;
and OH this platform, shading his eyes from
the blazing sun and looking out seaward. was
solitary man.
So intent was he on his occupation, that he
was unconscious of Mats approach till she
was standing by his side. He turned his eyes