Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-08-11

from eyes which meant nothing.
The waves lap in and wet your feet.
Laughing, you move further back, till
the dancing waves follow you again
and again. There is something mar
vellously exhilarating in this battle
royal with ;he sea. The same waves
wash away the children's sand-castles;
but, spade in hand, they build others
just as quickly. 1t is nothing to have
ones best castles swept away by the
glistening sea.
When the merry holiday hustle had
reached its zenith, two people came to
the biggest boarding house on the sea-
front. They had not met for years.
Face to face without warning, it
startled them both, and brought back
old memories sharp and bitterly.
'My poor son." the woman said
lowly, sis dead. He was drowned
may be you heard. He was made the
scape-goat of some ones il-doing;
but whose? l have often tried t3 End
out"
The man smiled condolingly.
>"Your son, madam" he said, "was
rogue. You know it, as every ore
did. He ruined our time -honored firm,
and fed. Don't treasure any further
notions of your sons innocence. 1t is
wisest to realize the worst from til o
very onset"
Then-as though to wipe ont the
effect of his hard words-he made
much ado about cheering her up. 1t
Is the business of all people at the
seaside to cheer each other.
They sat the whole morning through
on the shingles, talking of bygone
things, and watching the children.
The woman had no one now that
her son was dead The man had his
daughter, q merry girl, full of youth
and the hope it brings, and with an
overpowering confidence in the man
beside her who was shortly to be her
husband.
Father has just told me how You
lost your son." once she whispered to
the elder woman. ''I nm very sorry
though life could not have seemed
much to him, hunted DIS he was. The
sea takes so manyof our dear ones.
Yes, it's bright, looking thing,
isn't it?" she broke off, with low,
sweet laugh
The others smiled also.
"On such days as these one can
never be expected to realize that the
glorious sea has other, darker moods, !"
Elsie Trevors added. "How people
do enjoy it! That patch of sunlight
on those tan sails yonder-isn't it
magnificent, Mrs. Fenwick? Do look,
Harry"
Her eyes sparkled. Many, as they
passed, gazed ut her wonderingly, then
caught the spirit Of her great happi-
ness.
eyes, my son was hunted-merci-
lessly," Mrs. Fenwick said aloud.
'Your father hunted him more than
any one--why, I do not know. He was
terribly anxious to see him in the
hands of the law, and l have not for
given him."
my dear Mrs. Fenwick, let bygones
be bygones," Mr.. Trevors muttered
pompously. "Your boy was scoun-
drel-a scamp of the worst order-ex.
cuse me for speaking my mind and
he ruined the business his father and
had fought so long to keep together.
The disgrace made widow of you.
Ny duty was to find the boy, for the
sake of those our failure robbed. But
he was missing how he is dead. ALI!
ns l thought" suddenly consulting
his watch-''it is the luncheon hour.
Come, Elsie"
Always pompous, always irreproach-
able and highly respectable, Mr.. Ire
vors was accustomed to much respect
This bothered Mrs. Fenwick, and
set her thinking. Albert Trevors hon
ored and looked up to on all sides; her
own husband and son dying in dis
grace tho latter hunted down like q
low-born criminall
Surely n strange, far reaching differ
encel
1T was Just one of those westerly
gales which spring up so suddenly in
the glad summertime, and change the
shining face Of broad, glistening sea
into wild, angry, pulsing fury.
In such storm Albert Trevors we'll
nigh lost the only being he cared for
on this wide earth-his laughing,
happy Elsie. She had gone out sail
ing with the man who was to be her
husband. The storm gathered quick
ly, unwarningly-they could not get
back to the shore.