The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-01-07
JENNY.

warm and cozy, was full Of half twi-
light, through which the objects Of the
interior were but dimly visible by the
glimmer Of the embers which hickered
on the hearth and Redeemed the dark
rafters overhead. The fisherman's nets
were hanging on the wall. Some homely
pots and pans twinkled on rough shelf
in the corner. Beside great bed with
long, falling curtains, mattress was
extended on couple Of old benches on
which five little children were asleep
like cherubs in a nest. By the bedside,
with her forehead pressed against the
counterpart, knelt the children's mother.
She was alone. Outside the cabin the
black ocean, dashed with stormy snow
fakes, moaned and murmured, and her
husband was at sea.
From his boyhood he had been fisher
man. His life, as one may say, had been
a daily fight with the great waters; for
every day the children must be fed, and
every day, rain, wind or tempest, out
went his boat to fish. And while il his
four sailed boat he piled his solitary task
at sea his wife at home patched the sails,
mended the nets, looked to the hooks or
watched the little fire where the fish
soup was boiling. AS soon as the five
children were asleep she fell upon her
knees and prayed to heaven for her hus-
band in his struggle with the waves and
darkness. And truly such a life as his
was hard. The ikeliest place for fish
was mere speck among the breakers,
not more than twice as large as his own
cabin-a spot obscure, capricious, chang
ing on the moving desert, and yet which
had to be discovered in the fog and tenn
pest of winter night by sheer skill and
knowledge of the tides and winds. And
there-while the gliding waves ran past
like emerald serpents, and the gulf Of
darkness rolled and tossed, and the
straining rigging groaned as if in terror
there, amid the icy seas, he thought
of his own Jenny; and Jenny, in her
cottage, thought of him with tears.
She was thinking of him then and
praying. The seagulls harsh and mock
ing cry distressed her, and the roaring
of the pillows on the reef alarmed her
soul. But she was wrapped in thoughts
thoughts of their poverty. Their little
children went barefooted winter and
summer. Wheat bread they never ate,
only bread of barley. Heavensl the
wind roared like the bellows Of forge,
and the seacoast echoed like an anvil
She wept and trembled. Poor wives
whose husbands are at seal How terri
BILE to say, "My dear ones-father, lover,
brothers, sons-are in the tempestp
But Jenny was still more unhappy. Her
husband was alone-alone without as
sistance on this bitter night. Her chill
dren were too little to assist him. Poor
motherl Now she says, 81 wish they
were grown up to help their father!"
Foolish dreaml In years to come, when
they are with their fatherin the tempest,
she will say, with tears, ST wish they
We're bat children stillr'
Jenny took her lantern and her cloak.
at is time," she said to herself, ''to see
whether he is coming back, whether the
sea is calmer, and whether the light is
burning on the signal mast" She went
out. There was nothing to be seem
barely streak of white on the horizon.
It was raining, the dark, cold rain Of
early morning. No cabin window show
ed CLEAN Of light.
All at once, while peering round her,
her eyes perceived tumbledown old
cabin which showed no sign of light or
fire. The door was swinging in the
wind; the wormeaten walls seemed
scarcely able to support the crazy roof,
on which the wind shook the yellow,
filthy tufts Of rotten thatch.
''Stay," she cried, ST am forgetting
the poor widow whom my husband found
the other day alone and i'll. must see
how she is getting on"
She knocked at the door and listened.
No one answered. Jenny shivered in the
cold sea wind.
"She is I'll. And her poor childrenl
She has only two of them; but she is
very poor, and has no husband"
She knocked again, and called out,
Hey, neighbour But the cabin was
still silent.
''Heavenl" she said, show sound she
sleeps that it requires so much to wake
herr
At the instant the door opened Of
itself. She entered. Her lantern illu.
mined the interior of the dark and silent
cabin, and showed her the water falling
from the ceiling as through the opening:
of sieve. At the end of the room al
awful form was lying-a woman
stretched out motionless, with bare fee
and sightless eyes. E[er cold, white arm
hung down among the straw Of the pal
let. She was dead. Once a strong an(
happy mother, she was now only tn
specter which remains of poor humanit.
after long struggle with the world.
Near the bed on which the mother la.
two little children-a boy and a girl
slept together in their cradle and wer
smiling in their dreams. Their mother
when she felt that she was dying, ha
laid her cloak across their feet an
wrapped them in her dress, to keep ther
warm when she herself was cold.
How sound they slept in their old, tot
tering cradle, with their calm breat
and quiet little facesl 1t seemed as
nothing could awake these sleeping Of
phans. Outside the rain beat down
foods and the sea gave forth a SCUM
like an alarm bell. From the old Gre
iced roof, through which blew the gal
drop of water fell on the dead face an
ran down it like tear.
=
What had Jenny been about in Il
dead woman's house? What was 81