The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-10-20
A LEGEND.

The islands lay 30 miles apart. Macbeth
the larger one, rears its cliffs and peaks but
league from the coast line of the cape
while Nantakese is faint, sandy blur on
it's eastern horizon. Thirty miles apart in
one direction, the orbit of the earth in the
other, and yet when storms rage in either
way they are equally near and distant, fol
communication is deemed an impossibility
In the leisurely days before the civil wal
Peter Mott and Reuben Balm, two fisher
men, dwelt side by side on one of the lanes
of Nantakese. They owned sloop togeth.
er, and what with fishing and plotting and
wrecking snatched a common livelihood
from the sea. If there was still another
means of subsistence, it was no ones bust
ness except their own, and being their own
they kept it to themselves, for Peter was
the gruffest, most taciturn man on the is.
land, excepting his partner Reuben. The
reason for this exception 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 shrewdan provident he, with Reu.
ben's consent, confided them to her
In another regard the two men were SINH.
avarice. This kept them at work night
and day, and although they were consid.
cred 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 dis.
cussion with shoulder shrugs.
Reuben was a widower, as a man of his
nature would surely be shortly after mar,
riage. He had an only child, a son, the
cause of his most expressive curses, for lit
tie Matthew was n strange lad, and Reuben
had neither intelligence nor patience fol
enigmas, and 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 a most dis.
agreeable enigma to him. Probably he
would have solved it in some such 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 ex.
celled in the qualities he admired, and SC
when she tersely warned him ito let that
boy be and give me the managing, or I'll
make the sea too light for you," he surlily
abandoned the pleasurable daily habit OF
beating his boy and left him to his own de.
vices. And thereafter these two children,
Mary and Matt, were together the livelong
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 set
tier. 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 because of her;
she loved him because of life.
From childhood into youth they adj
vanced, still hand in hand, but the girl
walked in the sunshine the boy in the
shade. He never wanted another compan-
ion; she would not endure one. In the
open air she naturally led as he did in the
schoolroom, 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 nerv-
ously against his questions and assert
ed 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 tie
Morse alphabet on his slate. Little did he
think when he painfully taught her the
system that time would come when it
would prove the only light of despair.
Then, when their school days were over,
and Matt was tall, thin, cadaverous young
man, and Mary brown and rosy embodi-
ment of all womanly charms, there came a
dreadful time. Two events happened-the
one consequent on the other Mrs. Mott
died, and the partners quarreled; quarreled
as they often had over the division of spoils,
but now with no prudent monitor to bring
them together again; quarreled with fierce
VOWS Of separation which each was head
strong enough to keep. The sloop was sold,
and though trick Peter obtained its pos
session. The men met and fought, and
Reuben was worsted. To be beaten in traffic
and in strength was beyond his endurance.
The madness of anger became the madness
of revenge. He owned place on Macbeth
island, and thither he retired, for once
considering his son, for he knew by taking
him away he would wound his enemys
daughter.
1t was the last evening of MATHS stay on
Nantakese, and Mary and he were seated
on the bluff, the one bold portion of the is
lands coast line. The west was aglow with
fading light. On the base of the arc was a
spot, as If the artist while painting had
touched his hand.
"There is the cliff of Naboeth," 81
Matt, where my future home, my prison,
will be. Whenever you look toward it,
Mary, be it night or day, you will know
that my heart is striving and signing for
you"
Poor Mattp sighed the girl. "You are
aman. Must you goi Can't we go togetn-
er, you and /, somewhere-anywhere, out
into the world"
MATHS mothers nature trembled within