St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-10-26

A LEGEND OF NANTAKESE.

Lifts and peaks but league from
thn coast line of the cape, while
Ws Ma is faint, sandy blur, on
I've eastern horizon. Thirty miles
n ro in one direction, the orbit of
.be earth in the other, and yet when
storms rage, in either way, are they
oouallv near and distant, for COM
r,nHnnication is deemed an impossible
i In the leisure days before the civil
war. Peter Mott and Reuben Balm,
two fishermen, dwelt side by side on
one of the lanes of Nantakese. They
owned a sloop together, and what
with fishing and plotting and wreck
ing, snatched common livihood
from the sea. If there was still an
other means OF subsistence it was no
ones business except their own. They
kent it to themselves, for Peter was
the gruffest, most taciturn man on
the island excepting his partner,
Reuben. The reason for this excep-
ton was that Peters wife was still
living, and while she was also silent
and self-contained, she insisted on
knowing his secrets, and as her
advice was shrewd and provident
he, with Reuben's consent, conhded
them to her.
In another regard the two men
were similar-each was possessed by
an eager, exigent avarice. This kept
them at work night and day; and,
although they were considered warm
men, belittled the much of the
present with the more of the future.
This it was, too, that led to those
mysterious trips which would have
occasioned remarks among their
neighbors had their neighbors not
deemed it more prudent to dismiss
discussion with shoulder shrugs.
Reuben was a widower, as a man
of his nature would surely be short
" after marriage. He had an only
child, a son, the cause of his most ex-
pressive curses, for little Matthew
was a strange lad, and Reuben had
neither intelligence nor patience for
enigmas, and a pale, shrinking boy
who was afraid of the storm, who
would rather read than sail, and
who, above all things, wanted to
play with a girl, was most dis
agreeable enigma to him. Probably
he would have solved it in some
violent way as Alexander did the
Gordian knot, had not the girl so
desired been Mary Mott, the only
child Of Peter and, what was more
TO the purpose, of Peters wife.
Reuben regarded this woman with
all the awe of which he was capable,
for she exceled in the qualities he
admired, and so when she tersely
warned him, ito let that boy be and
give me the managing or III make
the sea too light for you" he surlily
abandoned the pleasurable daily
habit of beating his boy and left him
to his own devices. And thereafter
these two children, Mary and Matt,
were together the lifelong day, on
the beach, in the shallow pools, and
high on the western bluffs. The
island was their wonderland, and
hand in hand they explored it. But
it was little Mary who was the
pioneer and Matt who was the
settler. 1t was she who sought and
he who found. The one did, the
other pondered, yet action and
thought were harmonious and
mutual. The boy was dependent,
the girl reliant. He loved life be-
cause OF her; she loved him because
of life.
From childhood into youth they
advanced, still hand by hand; but
the girl walked in the sunshine, the
boy in the shade. He never wanted
another companion; she would not
endure one. In the open air she
naturally led, as she did in the school
room, yet in both they kept an equal
pace. Mary was swift of foot and
agile of hand. She could run, sail
and swim with the most expert.
Matt was studious and intellectual.
His preceptor read up nervously
against his questions, and asserted
the boys genius for the natural
sciences. And so at play he was her
care, at work she was his charge
She taught him the mysteries Of
wind and tide and rigging. He
wrote her exercises and raped out
answers during her Rotations in
the Morse alphabet on his slate
Little did he think when he painfully
taught her the system that the time
would come when it would prove
the only light OF despair.
Then, when their school days were
over and Matt was a tall, thin
cadaverous young man, and Mary q
brown and rosy embodiment OF all
womanly charms, there came a
dreadful time. Two events happen
ed-the one consequent on the other
Mrs. Mott died and the partners
quarrelled; quarrelled as they otter
had over the division of spoils, but
now with no prudent monitor tc
bring them together again; quar-
relied with fierce vows of separation
which each was headstrong enough
to keep. The sloop was sold ano