Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-11-19
1t was November.


Dor, the strain was almost too much for
him. Would he have gone to Boston
Surely, yes. Would she be glad 20 see
him, or would she only be thinking of
the Summer lover, whose effeminate
beauty Jack, in his big soul secretly
despised 2
He left Dave Chenoweth pottering
about the Susan Jane. chaffering with
tish-merchants, and swiftly pulled him
self in boat around the bend in by the
cove, and in front of the farmhouse.
Jack stood up in the boat.
For five years Dorothy had always been
standing, after every trip, on that tall,
square boulder, waving her handkerchief
to him. Then the light spring from her
perch, a run down the strip of beach
across the marshy meadows, along the
little pier, and her hand lay in his
Not to-day. Instead, he deserted Fred
Redlon's horse tied to the gate-post, and
two tigures-of height-pacing up
and down the porch.
Jack sat down. He picked up his oars,
and clinching his teeth together, pulled
back against the tide to Gloucester and
the Susan Jane.
1t would be time enough to reach
Chenoweth Farm when Dave himself
went over, so he thought.
"What perfect night" Redlon ex-
claimed, looking out to the starry sky.
There's storm brewing, for all those
stars, though" Dorothy answers, more
weatherwise than her companion. ''See
y0nder red light in the west, and all that
bank of billowy clouds We shall catch
a gale tomorrow or am mistaken. l
wish father were safe at home"
Dorothy shades her eyes with her
hand, just in time to catch a glimpse of
Jack Kendall as he rounds the point.
There be Jack now" cries she. "The
Susan Jane must be in, and father will
be home for Thanksgiving, after all !"
The girls face flushes with pleasure and
excitement as she claps her hands to-
gether Il wonder what jacks pulling
off to Gloucester for ?" she adds, pres
emily.
"Ferhaps he caught sight of me and
took fright!' Rcdlon says, stroking his
dark mu tache. .
Took fright from you! Jack? You're
too little!" the girl saws, purposcly
misunderstanding him, and with GER
tain scorn of small things and small men
implied in her curling rcd lips.
Rellon laughs.
$50 long, Dorothy, as I am big enough
to haze cut him out of your heart, my
size will suit me we'll enough"
"And have your" she asks, stopping
short, and staring at him with her wide,
lovely eyes.
Haven't ~ cries the young fellow,
passionately taking her brown hands in
his soft white ones. "Dorothy, If l
thought you weren't to be mine, I'd"
"Well, what?"
~ don't know" he responds, sullenly.
"You torture me tonight. - Why is it
that sometimes you make me feel that I
am in your eyes lacking2 Heavens! {"
cries he, angrily. "You are the only
woman on earth who ever did make ME
feel so. Why is it?"
'Do you want to know" she asks.
eyes, do! Tell mel"
''Do you see the sea yonder, and the
storm brewing2 when the great waves IL
be mountains high, and when the wind
III howl, and when the clouds are like
they're Dustin with the tumble of the
fresh water as comes a,peltin down to
meet the salt! Well, there's where You re
lackin'. You've crossed the ocean aboard
of steamer, five times as you tell me,
allyn in berth as snug as your own
room at home there, and as safe; bat
what do you know of riskin' your life
for your bread" cries Dorothy, as her
brown eyes CLEAN, Sin storm, say, like
that one that is a-crcepin' up over yon?
Nothing"
Redlon looks at her. and his own poetic
nature borrows something of the fcrvcnt
flash of hers.
Dorothy" cries he. catching the tall
girl to his heart, "l'll BE- worthier of
you. 1t may rot be for bread S sake, my
darling, but it wi be for yours"
What do you mean, Fred? what do
you mean"
"Pshaww laughs Rcdlon. i must
be Off now. The storm is gathering.
/ Tell your !ather welcome home for me,
and FL be over to morrow night"
Thanksgiving Night" mulmurs the
girl, as she lays timd finger in the
white hand Of her lover.
The storm did gather, and by the next
morning it broke in awful splendor up
and down the coast.
The cove crcpt up and licked all the
green out of the mlrsh meadows, and
sent the cattle shivcring Inland; and the
waves crashed over the boulders, cracked
and smote the reefs, turned the pier into
a whirlpool, and moancd the requiem OF
all its WIRE cks
The dahlias and asters in the garden
were all broken cked, and the long
gra was beaten at and the birds nests
tumbled out of the shaken trees, and a
swirl of r, d and brown leaves blew and
beat all day long against the window
panes where Dorothy worked away, sing.
ing, in the kitchen.
What if it did storm? The Susan Jane
was safe in Gloucester ha Dor, and hel
father and Jack and Joe were a at home,
and it was Thanksgiving Day-to- hight
wonld lie Thanksgiving Night; and
Dorothy had, in a certain vague fashion
promised herself that Thanksgiving
Night must bring her fairs to crisis
that there and then she must decide finally
to allow Fred RedlJn to tell her father
of all that there was between them.
The three men stood warming thci
chilled fingers at the kitchen stove, whcl
Dorothy, with the agting-spoon in he
hand, ran over to the east W low TO tax,
q peep at the storm.
1T be terrible night" tie girl says
holding her hands up to see the better
- ueSs it be; and twill lc worse,
Dave Chcnowcth has scarcely time tt
answer, when Dorothy cries out
"Father! fatherl there's boat OIL
yo12-a small boat. Look! lookm
n She pushes up the sash and leans on
, into the night, the men crowding arount