Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1892-01-20
A ROMANCE OF LOOKOUT ROCK

"Who?"
"Mary Brent"
1t was under the brow of Lookout
mountain. The sun, sinking behind
the crest of the ridge, painted the
rocks with silhouette shadows, and
the murmur of the Tennessee came
up to the listeners on the heights like
the music of far-off waters.
1t was a romantic spot. There was
quiet in the air that pressaged COM
ing storm, and the gray-headed old
man who had spoken dropped his
head in deep thought.
"Who was Mary Brent? ?" ventured
the questioner again.
The old nam turned toward the
intruder with dull stare.
"You are young" he said presently ;
"you have no interest in the past"
"Try me. Tell me something about
the past. Tell me the story of the
one who lies here"
The old man sat for a moment
steadily gazing at a little plot of
ground, where, under the shadow of
the pines, the earth had sunk, FORM
ing hollow grave.
at is strange story" he said fin
ally, "yet not stranger than many that
have had their origin IN these old
mountains. Did you ever hear the
story of Mary Brent? No? Let
me tell it to you. Do you see those
ruins through the trees to your right =!
That's where John Brent lived forty
years ago. John Brent was a man
who had known want and hardships
in the East, and when, sometime in
the forties, he came out here with his
wife and two children to start life
afresh in new and unknown country,
it was with determination to gain
at least competence for the devoted
family that had followed him to the
wilderness. And he succeeded. For
tune was kinder than she had been,
and ten years of work and saving
made him one Of the richest men in
the neighborhood of Ross Landing.
"Brent's oldest child was a girl of
16 or Ia gay, opened-hearted girl
who feared nothing, man or beast !;
that roamed across the mountains or
tripped down to the landing, protect
ed alone by her merry wit and hand
some face-a diamond in the rough
that the loggers swore by and for
whom any man in the settlement
would have fought single-handed.
But Mary was saucy as well as pref
ty, and the sting of her sarcasm fell
alike on friend and foe and though
twice twenty men at the landing had
dreamed strange dreams in which
Mary Brent had the center figure,
no one man had been encouraged
more than another, and at II Mary
Brent was as seemingly unapproacha-
BILE prize as when, in fit of pigue
she had told Bill Lewis, the biggest
man in the settlement, that she would
not marry him if he was rolling in
gold and as for the rest of the men,
she hated them, and never would
cease to hate them as long as she lived.
"She must have meant settlement
men, for one day there came a change.
The change was in the shape of
strapping fellow from the rivera log
ger named Jim Byrne.
"Brent had done well by his daugh-
ter. He had given her the best edu-
cation that the landing could afford;
he had been proud to think that she
was the best dressed, as well as the
best read girl in town, and 1T made
him mad to think she would take up
with a river man without coming to
him for advice. Besides he wanted
something higher than a river man
for Mary, and when he told her then
and there he didn't cotton to Jim
Bryne' and never would, he meant it,
and Mary Brent knew he meant it, too.
Mary sulked little and cryed. and
the old man went about his work
chuckling to himself to think how
easy he had broken off the match
but Mary wasn't the kind of girl to
get frightened at a little parental OBJ
lection, so she and jim had many a
meeting on the mountain, beyond the
peeping eyes of the gossips, and un-
der the very nose of old man Brent.
"But things couldn't go on that way
forever. Jim was getting impatient.
He swore he would marry her, come
what would, and begged her to run
away with him to his fathers on the
upper Tennessee. But still she held
back. Her love for Jim was strong,
but the home on the mountain was