The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-08-12
YA 9 pa. S5pA. 9 pa. ]

the banks. a-fshin,. Levi hadn't been
merried q month, but he was anxious to cit on,
30 he went. leavin' his wife with ma-a pretty,
blue-eyed little ~creetur', Mary Nickerson, Of the
bay. and only sixteen she was, too. Wal, time
went on and it got to be November.
fur they went In the early fall, and some one
knocked to my door one night, an there stood
Rudder. worn an sick and jest hesrt-broken.
Inc Solitude was ruu down in a fog an only
him saved. de- never see Levi arter the fust
shock. He bust out cryin', Rudder did, for,
says be. Il feel like q thief an q murderer
a-comin' back here, an old hulk thet he'd ouRhter
drownded. an them fine boys as went from here
bein' down TO the bottom Of the ocean / was
told by q sailor afterwards that Rudder was that
looney when he knowed hs was the only one
saved that they bad to tie him ham an fut to
keep HIM from jumpin' overheard"
And the young wifel' asked Marguerite.
"She never said puthin,," went on Mrs. Reed,
looking with sad eyes at the sunlit sea. while her
face grew more set and gray; 'she Jest growed
whittier an Trailer. eat:n' nothin', and when in
the spring her little babe was born she give him
to me with q weary sigh an went out like n can
die. She died, miss, of q broken heart, pining
for him."
And the childs'
Hes over to the cape. / left thin there with
my cousin. for your father only hired Rudder
an me. He's q queer boy. old for his age and
sortsr sorrsrful allus. which his mother marked
him afore he was born, but he ia good company,
though. l miss him q heap"
W will have him here when papa Is better"
said Marguerite, "you ought 70 have brought
him at first. See, there comes the Captain and
q gentleman with him. Who Is itr
Its the new preacher over the bay" said
Ann gently. II Thoughts tho weather bein' fair
IL was best TO send for him. We don't know.
Miss Marereet, whom the summons comes TO
set ont on she long journey"
Marguerite ran to her room Ia an agony of
grief. An hour later Mrs. Reed called her. Her
father could not speak. he could only look at her
clssping his hand. He sighed, strove to speak,
tried to return the pressure of his daughters
hand and then closed his eyes on the world that
had treated him 80 well.
After that lonely funeral whore the Captain dug
the grave and he and the minister carried the cot
I'm the Captain had brought hidden in the boat
two days before the end-Marguerite settled
down into q state of hopeless sorrow and despair.
she had her father buried at the island. He had
been happy here, and che knew his horror of NOV
ing q corpse. She visited his grave every day, re-
memberirg bitterly how fond and loving he had
been. how proud of her. how hopeful for Ter
future. she wrote to his New York lawyer that
fne whould stay that winter on the island, dis
REGARDED bis well-mesnine objections, and as
she was twenty-five and her own mistress, no
one could influence her against her will.
All that summer her father had been building
q lighthouse on the rocky point where the land
was highest AID furthest out to sea. IL was
finished two weeks after his death. the govern
ment duly informed. aud Capt. Rudder Reed
appointed keeper. When this labor of love was
completed there was nothing to take her mind
from her grief. She felt her fathers loss ten
fold He mad gratifed her every wish. and had
been her companion, her teacher and friend all
her motherless girlhood. They had travelled to-
gether over Europe and her own country and
everything around her recalled him
In December Captain Reed went over to tho
bay for stores and wood and on business con-
nected with his property" a tumble-down
house and a dilspidated dory. Marguerite
watched him sail away, she wanted to 60, but
remembered that the people at the bay stared
at her unkindly, and once or twice she had heard
muttered that were i'll meant. She
thought that 1t was because she was rich and
they were poor, for her father said when she told
him, that they were envious, ignorant louis"
Marguerite was what her father made her, proud,
innocent OF evil or wrong. and, from ignorance,
Indifferent to the suffering of the world. She
looked on beggars as impostors, could not I'M
derstand why a person should steal except from
innate depravity. and from looking on the bright
side Of life forgot utterly there might be q dark
Or and less sunny aspect. She gave money to
organized charities, and was positive that il
people were only well-behaved they would be
agreeably taken care of by relief societies.
She walked town to her fathers grave after
the captains boat was out of sight. She looked
&C the lighthouse with q glow of satisfaction.
Captain Reed had told ner of many sad ship
wrecks that had occurred on the whale back. q
black reef a mile from the island. almost hidden
by the sea, but showing to experienced sight a
narrow curl Of foam. Once in q quarter-century
the whale back might be entirely covered by
the sea, and that meant high tides with wild
winds and furious waves This friendly light
would guide mariners joining the circuit of yell
low CLEANS from Sequin. Pemaouid, Burnt
island and Hendricks Head,
The grave was near the lighthouse under q
Ruarlsd old pine that chung to the rocks With
marvellous life, reaching the earth through