Smyrna times., 1886-02-24

of a pretty girl? Mr.. Dorman only
laughed, and politely ignored Polly's
proposition to have Joe Miller, who was
hoeing in the vegetable garden, accom-
pany him, set forth with his face turned
wharfward.
Easiest thing in the world to handle
a boat if one has a little gumption,"
soliloquized Mr.. Dorman, as, an hour
later he leaned comfortably back in the
stern sheet in the staunch little cat boat
that headed seaward, the boom jibed
we'll out was running directly before
the strong southerly breeze. And then,
having lit his pipe, the young man gave
himself up to a luxurious day-dream
III which the witching face of Polly
Preston was the prominent feature, for
young Mr.. Dorman was in lOve-and
for the first time!
An hour passed. Then Mr.. Dorman's
revery was abruptly-not to say rudely
broken. The boom jibed over with
such startling and fiendish suddenness
that it banged Mr. DOrman's head, and
sent his hat, with his pipe, spinning to
leeward.
"Ow" was his involuntary but
natural exclamation, and it speaks we'll
for the young mans moral character
that he checked more impetuous eiacu-
lation. And as with difficulty he got
the boat round, he saw that there was
threatening bank of thunder clouds ris-
ing behind the Covert hills, presaging
one of those sudden wind and rain
squalls peculiar to our coast.
Of his wrathful and eminently unsuc-
cessful efforts to recover his hat, need
say nothing. 1t is sufficient to add that
in giving it up, after nearly half-hours
striving in vain, Mr.. Dorman fattened
down the sheet, which he Immediately
made fast to the cleat, in secure of knots.
As the Wave, we'll over on her side,
went spinning along the harbor mouth,
she proved that in practice as in meta
phOr, there is a vast difference between
sailing with the wind and sailing against
il. Now, as the storm clouds blotted
out the snn, and vivid lightning fash
was followed by a rattling thunder peal,
Mr. DOrman should have emulated the
example of the fitting coasters and
fishermen everywhere in sight, and
shortened sail at once.
But he was anxious to reach the har-
bor month before it began to rain.
For, of course, there won't be any
wind to speak of. he added, half aloud,
when all at once-with a rush and a
roar that filed the air with dust, and
flying leaves from the bending trees on
the shore-the squall struck And the
sheet being fast, the unvarying result
followed. In another moment the
Wave was upside down, and drenched
young man, cOnvulsively clinging to
the keel, was being drifted seaward as
fast as wind and tide could carry him !
At the sound of the first Handicapped
Polly, who, with much apprehension,
had been watching the coming squall,
ran upstairs to Mr. Dorman's room,
which commanded a grand outlook over
the sea, with her fathers old-fashioned
spy-glass in her hand. On her way to
the open window, she stopped to pick
up some scattered papers which the
wind had dislodged from the table.
Upon my word " exclaimed Polly
aloud in an indescribable tone For
before her upon a sheet of drawing.
paper, was Polly's own exquisite face,
with its broad white forehead, and about
which clustered thick tendril-like rings
of dark hair, and eyes Of unfathomable
depth, and underneath was written -
"Polly carissima."
"I wonder what 'carissima means,
she said, very softly, with a tender light
filling her eyes, as she laid the drawing
on the table and turned to the window,
Adjusting the glass with her fingerl
that trembled visibly, Polly looked sea
ward, Just as a great gust Of wind tori
across the harbor, its roar almost drown
ing the terrible bass Of the thunder,
peal
One minute she gazed, and then, as Q
little cry escaped her white lips, the
glass fell to the floor, and Polly few
swiftly down stairs.
Joe! Joe| she cried; but alasl JoC
had taken shelter from the storm at the
corner store, while her mother was away
somewhere, making a neighborly call
Only a brief moment of hesitation
and then Polly sped out through thu
driving rain, toward the wharf a cable'I
length distant, where lay her own pc
rowboat. And five minutes later th,
boat itself was flying toward the harbOl
mouth. through the spray and storm
impelled by the light oars in the handi
OF young girl, whose supple white
wrists seemed, for the time, to hold an
atheletes power.
Il could not have hung on many
minutes longer" quietly said Mr.. Dor.
man, as, an hcnr afterward, he pulled
the boat back toward Covert, with Polly,
drenched to the skin, very much
exhausted and strangely quiet, sitting
in the stern, and the LOOK which accom-,
panied his words was more eloquent
than speech.
"No?" returned Polly, dreamily.
Mr.. Dorman, she continued, a trife
abruptly, "whatdo 'carissima mean p
The young man started visibly. and
then, bending his eye on Polly's crimson
face he said:
1t means that you are the deares
thing in existence" And Polly could
only hide her bushes by placing hel
hands before her face, while her hear
was beating with a strange tumult O.
Joy.
My own Polly carissima p Mr.. Dor
man repeated this over and over again
In dazed sort of way, while in tn,
solitude of his own room he wen
through the prOsaic operation of max
ing the necessary changes Of raimen
consequent upon a thorough duoking
Tor, as they parted at the bottom of thu
I a.