The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-05-11
Jenny.


Jenny.
1t was night. The cabin, poor bu
warm and coZy, was full OF hal
twilight, through which the objects O.
the Interior were but dimly visible by
the glimmer of the enbers which
tiickered on the hearth and reddeneC
the dark rafters overheard. The fish
erman's nets were hanging on the wal
Some homely pots and pans twink
led on u rough shelf in the corner
Beside great bed with long, falling
curtains, a mattress was extended on
a couple of old benches on which five
little children were asleep like cher,
ubs in nest. By the bedside, with
her foreheod pressed against the
counterpane, knelt the children's
mother. She was alone. Outside the
cabin the black ocean, dashed
with stormy snow flakes, moaned
and murmured and her husband was
at sea.
From his boyhood he had been a
fisherman. His life, as one may say,
had beeu q 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 in his four sailed boat he
piled his solitary task at sea his
wife at home patched the sails, men,
ded 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
husband in his struggle with the
waves and darkness. And truly such
a life as his was hard. The likeliest
place for fish was a mere speck among
the breakers, not more than twice as
large as his own cabin-a spot obscure,
capricious, changing on the moving
desert, and yet which had to be dis
covered in the fog and tempest OF a
winter night by sheer skill and knowl-
edge 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 Jen-
ny, in her cottage, thought of him
with tears.
She was thinking of him then and
praying. The seagull's harsh and
mocking cry distressed her, and the
roaring of the pillows on the reef
alarmed her soul. But she was wrap
ped in thoughls-thoughts of their
poverty. Their little children went
barefo0ted winter and summer. Wheat
bread they never ate, only bread OF
barley. Heavens the wind roared
like the bellows of a forge, and the
seacoast echoed like an anvil. She
wept and trembled. Poor wives
whose husbands are at sea! How ter
rible 10 say, MY dear ones, father,
lover, brothers, sons are in the tenn
pest ~ But Jenny was still more un-
happy. Her husband was alone
alone without assistance Oh this bitter
night. Her children were too little to
assist him. Poor mother! Now she
says, II wish they were grown up to
help their father!' Foolish dream
In years TO come, when they are with
their father in the tempest, she will
say, with tears, II wish they were but
children still" !.
X x 4
Jenny took her lantern and her
cloak. 1T is time," she said to her
self, ito see whether he is coming
back, whether the sea is calmer, and
whether the light is burning ON the
sig ,lal mast" She went out. There
was nothing to be seen.--barely a
streak of white on the horizon. 1t was
raining, the dark, cold rain of early
morning. No cabin window showed a
gleam of light.
All at once, while peering round
her, her eyes perceived tumbledown
old cabin which showed 10 sign CT
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, ~ am forgetting
the poor widow whom my husband
found the other day alone and i'll. L
must see how she is getting
on"
She knocked at the door and listen
ed. No one answered. Jenny shiver-
ed in the cold sea wind.
''She is ill. And her poor children
She has only two of them but she il
very poor, and has no hus'
band" ;,
She knocked again, and called
out.
"Hey, neighbor ~ But the cabin
was still silent.
"Heavens ~ she said, chow sound
she sleeps that it requires SO much to
wake herw
At the instant the door opened OF
itself. She entered. Her lantern illu'
mined the interior of the dark and 81.
lent cabin, and showed her the water
falling from the ceiling as through the
openings of a sieve. AT the end ol
the room an awful form was lying-s
woman stretched out motionless, with
bare feet and sightless eyes. Her cold
white arm hung down among. the
straw of the pallet. She was dead
Once q strong and happy mother, she
was now only the specter which re-
mains of poor humanity aftera long
struggle with the world.
Near the bed on which the mother
Law two little children a boy and
girl slept together in their cradle ant
we're smiling in their dreams. Ihei
mother, when she felt that she was dy
ing, had laid her cloak across theiI
feet and wrapped them in her drees
~