Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-09-24

captain and she the captains wife. All
| those sweet hopes, all that tender love,
had been swallowed by the pillows
| when the Sally Jane, of Siasconset, went
down with all on board.
ooh, Dan, my dear, dead darling
the girl moaned to herself, and turned
and saw Samuel Jefferson behind her.
He made haste to reach her side and
hold out his hand. He was old, but
sturdy, shock of iron-gray hair covered
his head and his face lay under it, red
with wind and weather, but still fine
face
.Evenin', Mahaly," he said. s'I'm
real glad fur to see you-how be your
| He spoke even less grammatically than
he wrote, yet his speech produced a
better effect than his letters; it seemed
! to be from choice that he used the
words he uttered, not from Ignorance.
"You gotsmy letter. he said. Take
your time-take your time. wouldn't
with it. It's a pretty night, isn't it?
The light looks good out there"
eyes," said Mahala, she had laughed
at his letter, but she could not laugh at
him, cit is all very charming"
The spot you stand on is the pref
test" said the old man. "You've been
cryin' Mahaly."
Eyes," she answered. GIVE been
thinking of Daniel-Daniel Dane, was
to marry him when he came back"
81 rememher-lost in the Sally Jane
of Slasconset." said old Jefferson. $50
you was a thinkin' of him."
love him." said Mahala. She stood still
and looked out toward the light as she
spoke, and old Jefferson took her hand
/ and drew it through his arm,
81 don't ask you should" said he.
"You don't expect I've forgot Patience
Sperry, do you? She and me married
forty years ago. | married Rosanna
Carrick after she was gone, but / don't
forgit. J. dunno how things is fixed in
heaven, but I shill look for Patience eff
it's fixed so as / kin. [ want you to be
good to me and me be good to you, and
| shill be proud of you and pet you like
them feelings | had for Patience to
come back, no more than you expect
them you had for Dan'l to come. Other
things die as we'll as folks, my darter."
| For the first time Mahala felt that
there was something in this old mans
soul akin to hers. She looked up into
his face, he stopped and kissed her on
the forehead, and she said
81 will marry you, Mr.. Jefferson, and
[ will try to make you happy" An
hour after he left her at the door of her
cottage, and she entered and closed the
door before she spoke.
"You shall have the corner room,
Aunt Samantha" she said, land you
can see both streets from the window,
you know"
you've accepted him then?' cried
Miss Samantha. "Did you write ?''
81 met him." said Mahala care you
pleased ?"
CT am tickled to DEATH" said Miss
Samantha. Then Mahala took the blue
| letter from the table and folded it up
with the yellow envelope and lifted off
the lid of the small stove and dropped
the little package upon the Goals.
"God bless us all ]" she said. "Let us
go to bed"
In the night Aunt Samantha spoke.
eyes" said Mahala, "wide awake"
"Can I get blue chintz covers for the
chairs ?" asked SAMANTHA. Cup in my
room, [ mean"
"Of course" said Mahala
! The girl arose next morning, feeling
that she had done we'll. Life was
spoiled for her when young Daniel
Dane was lost, and she neither hoped
to love nor to be light hearted again
Ambition slept, youth was no more:
at is what happens to us that brings
age to the soul, not time," she said to
herself.
Aunt Samantha was younger than she,
! hope awoke in her soul at the thought
of corner bedroom furnished with
| blue chintz. She could do her duty by
the old ship builder, life would be no
worse. Aunt Samantha would be happy,
she would no longer keep poor Miss
Peck from that goal for her ambition,
the little school, and as she had prom
ised to marry Mr.. Jefferson in month,
she would resign her place, buy white
gown and make it.
Later, came letter from Samuel JEFF
ferson to Miss Samantha. 1t enclosed a
sum of money, '.To get fxings for you
and Mahala,' said the note, ''seein' you
might be short
ooh, if we were but in Boston!" cried
Miss Samantha, but they were not, and
after all she took great pride in buying
dry goods at Mr.. Sherburne's store-she
had not had the money to spend for SO
long time. Aunt Samantha grew young
again, crimped her hair, began to knit
tides instead of stockings, and spoke
of her future more than onces as latter
we are married." Immediately covering
her mouth with her hand and crying:
'Why, what did [ say?" And SO the
time passed on, the weeks drifted
away, the white dress was
made-dotted muslin, long-sleeved
and high-necked. A pretty silk
dress, too, and one for Samantha of pal
rst cigar shade, and oh, the bonnets !
Miss Wood, the milliner, had surpassed
herself. Samuel Jefferson came in
every evening. Sometimes he bought
peppermint candy as an offering Miss
Samantha ate sometimes paper bags
of peanuts. He could tell many curious
old stories, tales of old times, traditions
handed down to him by his ancestors,
who came to the place with Thomas
Macy, its first settler, in 1859, when the
Indians were many and Nantucket was
not a sandy desert, but a place well
wooded with oaks and pines. Stories
of later date when wrecks were many
on Nantucket shoals, when the first
sperm whale was caught and the first
whalers went forth.
"Tisn't so lonesome since Samuel
| Jefferson began to come regularly"