The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-10-11
CHAPTER ~.

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WITS lv q, CHAPTER ~
INTRODUCES WILLIAM JONES AND HIS FArHER
My story Ia now bound to follow, in
the footsteps of Matt, who, on quit
ting the presence Of her artist friend,
walked rapidly along the Band-encum-
bered road In the direction Of the sea.
Skirting the lake upon the left hand,
and still having the ocean Of sand hills
upon her right, she gradually slack
ened her pace. A spectator, had he
been by, would have doubtless observed
that the change was owing to maiden
meditation; that, in other words, Matt
had fallen into brown study.
Presently she sat down upon con-
venient stone, or piece of rock, and,
resting her elbows on her knees, her
chin In her hands, looked for some
minutes at vacancy. At last she rose,
flushed warmly, and murmuring some
thing to herself.
The something was to this effect:
"His hands are as white as lady's,
when he pulls off them gloves, and he
said was as pretty as my picture"
I can only guess at the train OF
reasoning which led to this soliloquy,
and express my opinion that Matt had
well developed ideas on the subject Of
the sexes. True, she was not above
sixteen, and had little or no experience
Of men, none at all Of men who were
both young and good looking. Never
theless, she was not insensible of the
charms Of white hand, and other
tokens of masculine refinement and
beauty.
BY a natural sequence Of Ideas, sho
was led to stretch out her own right
hand and look at it critically. It was
very brown and covered with huge
golden freckles. The inspection not be-
ing altogether satisfactory, she thrust
both her hands irritably into the pock-
cts of her jacket and walked on.
Leaving the lake behind her she fol-
lowed the road along swampy hollow,
down which the very shallowest of riv-
ulets crept along to the sea, now los
ing itself altogether In mossy patches
of supicious greenness, again emerging
and trickling with feeble glimmers
over pebble and sand. Presently she
left the road and cameupon primitive
wooden bridge, consisting Of only one
plank, supported on two cairns Of
stone. Here she paused, and, seeing o
red-legged sand-piper running about on
the edge of the water just below her,
made gesture like boy throwing q
O stone, whereon the sand-ptper
sprang up chirping and few along
out of sight
By this time she was In full sight Of
the sea. Dead calm, and covered with
rain-colored shadows, 1t touched the
edge Of the fat sands about a mile
away, and left one long creamy
line Of changeless foam. The sands
themselves stretched away to the west
ward as far as the eye could see. But to
the left and eastward, that is to say, in
the direction toward which she was
going, there was q long, rocky promon-
tory, with signs Of human habitation.
Breaking into swinglike trot, Matt
hastened thither, following footpath
across marshy fields
In due time she came out upon o
narrow and rudely made road, which
wound along the rocky promontory,
at low water skirting the sand, at high
water the sea. The first house she
reached was wooden life-boat house,
lying down In creek and, II being
then low tide, at,some distance from
the waters edge. On the roadside
above the house was q flagstaff, and
beneath the Flagstaff wooden seat.
All was very still and desolate, with
out sign Of life, but a little further
along the road was q row Of cottages
which seemed inhabited, and were In
fact the abodes of the coast-guard. In
stead Of lingering here Matt proceeded
on her way until she reached what at
first sight looked like the beginning of
q village or small town. There were
house on each side of the road, some
of them several stories high; but close
inspection showed that most of them
were rooAess, that few of them pos
sessed any windows or doors, and that
nearly all were decayed and dilapidat-
ed from long disuse, while not few
had blasted and sinister appearance,
as II blackened by FIRE. And still there
was no sign Of any human soul. Sud-
denly, however, the street came to On
end, and Matt found herself on a sort
OF rocky platform overlooking the sea;
and on this platform, shading his eyes
from the blazing sun and looking ont
seaward, was solitary man.
So intent was he on his occupation
that he was unconscious Of Mats ap-
proach till she was standing by his
side. he turned his eyes upon her for
o moment and then once more gazed
out TO sea. .-.r .s.rs ..s g-s -y.
A short, plump, thick-set man, with
a round, weather-beaten face, which
would have been good-humored but
for its expression Of extreme watchful-
ness and greed. Tho eyes were blue,
but very small and keen; the forehead
low and narrow; the hair coarse and
sandy; the beard ,coarser and sander
still. he might have been about fifty
years Of age, His dress was curious
consisting Of yellow sou'wester, Q
pair Of seaman's coarse canvas trousers
and n blue pilot-jacltet. ornamented
with brass buttons which bore the In
sigma Of her majesty s naval service
Presently, without turning his eyea
again from the far distance, the man
spoke In husky, far-away whisper;
Matt, do you see simmat Mt yon-