People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1894-03-02
COPYRIGHTED BYkj. BLPPNcoTT COMPANY.

W O'E'T rlINSO SOFlPHN1.
vital Importance of what was passing,
recovered, sat up, and tried to rise.
Keep quiet, my child" said the
doctor. You are very weak"
81 am not weak Take me to him.
l know. understand He has come
TO me at last"
Her spirit seemed to be equal to
anything, and in spite If the doctors
protestations she insisted on going at
once with Capt. Floyd.
In the chart-room sat father and
son, silent, each with his own grief.
At last the old man spoke:
The ways O Providence amt for
any man to find out 1t may be a
marcy, but l don't see it that way-not
just now"
Not letter, father, not a letter
from her since you went away. /
was knocked over by the boom of the
Polly B. the other day, and when l
found myself in the water l was most
tempted to give up the fight; but |
kinder thought there must be some
thing behind it all, and it would be
disappointin' the ways O heaven if
didn': swim back to the boat.
"And to think we should both be
here on this steamer. What does it
mean,-that buoy a-driftin' out to sea
as if it were tired O whistlin' for moth
ing all this time? It's mebby more
than we can--"
At this moment the door leading
from the deck opened and, to their
surprise, Capt Floyd entered the
room, and upon his arm leaned Mai,
pale, beautiful, and with new and
strange light in her eyes. Behind her
came Judge Gearing.
The instant the door closed behind
her she broke away from Capt. Floyd.
Father! Sam! l am here
She paused, bewildered, in the mid
die of the room. The younger man
rose from his seat, gave one swift
glance at her, and turned away with
bent head and averted face. She
turned to the elder man.
Father! What does it mean? Don't
you know me-Mai?"
"You ain no child O mine"
"No! no. not really, but--oh, father.
to think you do not-care for me. Oh,
see 1t is true. 1t is true. You
kept it back from me- You never told
me all about the ship"
And l never will; I promised
mother l wouldn't. And you went
back on us, and left Us"
He said no more, for an ashen pallor
overspread her face. Nature is lnerci-
full in sore need.
They took her again to her room.
1t was finished; her heart was
broken.
A few moments later the bell spoke
below:
Full speed ahead"
One bright December morning. four
weeks after THE whistling buoy had
gone adrift, a strange schooner made
the little port of Wilson's Holl. The
truant buoy had been restored to its
place by the lighthouse steamer, and
the steamer evidently knew the way
into port, for it steered directly for the
buoy, and dropped anchor. The hotel
and the cottages were closed, and the
only life in the place clustered round
the little wharf. The new keeper of
the light saw the strange schooner
first, and telephoned to the postofice.
She might want pilot, and there
were plenty of venerable sea-captains
who would be glad to pick upa little
/ yOb lLhC lAdl.
Captain Breeze Johnson was at the
little village store when the post
master called to the telephone got the
news of the arrival. The postmaster.
being a just man, gave the news out
freely to all present:
Schooner making in. Guess she
may want pilot"
Six old chaps rose from the boxes
wherein they had rmade themselves
comfortable for the past two hours
and bolted in sudden haste for the
door.
Hard alec there! It's only Sam;
and guess if any Teller can steer into
Wilson'S Holl he can. got a letter
yesterday sayin' if the wind held good
he'd be here to-day"
I The elderly parties returned to their
boxes.
Sam got a schooner? Coin to win
ter here? Fishin' or freightin'g''
''Tain't either. It's EXPLORING"
'Explorin'I What's that?n
Just then a tow-headed youth put
his head in at the door and said, in a
shrill voice
"Schooner's come to anker nigh the
whistler. Mother wants you, dad"
A gray old sea-captain who hadn't
been to sea for fifteen years rose stiflv
and remarked, gravely-
Il forgot to split wood. Guess it's
some loonitiek if he's anchored long.
side that screechin' booey."
The others laughed in a friendly
way at their neighbor as he trotted
OF after the boy, and then fell to dis
GUSHING the strange schooner that could
already be seen at anchor in the harbor
through the dingy windows of the
little store.