Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-02-28
DIaRT
BY KATE N. SLATER.


Sandy had gone to watch for the
fathers boat.
AS she crossed the beach she would
have delighted an artist hunter fol-
rare bits of the seas weird. The
coarsely clad figure and face, with
its it's latent possibilities, stood out,
sadly clear against the background
of desolate sands.
Mart, you don't forgit tibet
bread !" and Mart's half needing re-
ply rang back to the querulous
mother. She, and the loud voiced,
often silent, father-with nature s
carved from the cliffs across Sundays
beach-scarcely helped to soften
MarS's tense, half starved nature
which spent it's whole force in her
love for little Sandy. Often these
capable lives, undeveloped, are more
susceptible to absorbing passions
than those not held in the vice of an
iron force Of circumstances.
Sandy was frail little lad with
all the beauty of Mart, but none of
her strength. At her repeated calls
of SANDY, Sandy" he looked up.
"Want me, Mart?"
Eyes. Sandy. You'd better come
home now" Then the two returned
to the rough, bare cottage, the drying
of nuts and the meager cookery.
Sandy sat down to watch this last
operation with impotence, and
finally said, Mart, hain't we most
done?"
He was answered by curt no, for
Mart never measured her love by
words, nor, indeed, measured it at all.
After the coarse bread was baked he
coaxed her off to the shore where she
launched the tiny boats she made
for him-watching them while they
drfted forever away.
Mart, dye We s'pose my ships III
come back?"
Guess not, Sandy"
"Won't they find fathers boat?"
mo"
"Say, Mart, where do ships go to
at never come backY'
ITO the bottom"
"Well, do the fishes 90 there too?
If they do, how d. they get to
heayen"
"Don't know" was Mart's terse,
Characteristic reply.
well, l don't b'lieve it. Those
ships must go somewhere else."
Meanwhile the eyes watched for q
sail, but when the great big sun that
always ended Sandy's play began to
paint the waters with livid glow
the half seeing girl and the frail
child, hand in hand, went across the
wide SANDSTONE.
But no boat came home that night,
or ever came, and the girl only loved
Sandy more. After the days of sus-
pense were over, and fear had become
certainty, the thought Of living must
be settled. There were many anxious
conversations between the fretful
mother-compiaining of Johns death
and quiet Mart, who remembered
no gentle words of her fathers ex-
cept when he had carelessly said one
day, Eye mend the nets well, lass. I"
Small memory this, to carry through
Ine NGuTS, vi ~ lONtHH MOIuS.
The talk ended by Mart going
daily to the village to mend nets for
the village fishers. In the long days
while she was gone frail Sandy grew
Trailer, and without his one COM
panion his lonely little heart grew
more lonely. The querulous mother,
too, grew more querulous and the
little fellow often shrank from her
sharp impatience ut his oft repeated
remark: ~Haint it most time fer
Mart t. conner"
How dye s'pose I know when it's
time fer Mart t. come"
So he finally took to silently watch
ing the long sunsets and the fading
glow of the sands touched with their
sinking splendor. Sometimes, with
the last faint glow, sometimes with
the first shadows, he would see tho
masterful figure coming across the
beech and his glad cry, ''Oh, Mart, "
would sing out. Then came supper
and the short evening-happy to
Sandy-when they could sit outside
on the sands.
Mart, did we see any Dig D0ats
tday"
"Yes, one"
can laddies?"
"Yes."
Mart, does the sun set at Gray
bay just as it does here 2"
ut looks just the same"
"Well. Mart, dye s'pose tits the
same sum-"
Its time We stopped your
tongues.
At this fretful call Of the mother
the two went through the low door
into the bare interior and to their
rude cots. Soon the mother could
not rise from her cot and had only
Sandy's feeble care, and one night,
when Mart came home, Sandy was
asleep, and the woman--had gone
across the sea. Mart only loved
Sandy harder and chung to him
closer.
Soon the days were too long for
the failing strength Of the child; he
could not be left alone, SO Mart with
a new addition to her frozen calm
ness took the few dishes, one rude