The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-08-18
miscellaneous
PAUL'S HONOR.
BY A. b, DE MILE,

II ~ i's hHS -'iii1i1Es
They still tell the story at Tennant's
when the fleet is home in summer or
when the cargo hunters are storm
bound in winter. What chiefly puz-
zles me is how first it got abroad, for
Paul Fralic was lost and the other
two were most like to keep the matter
hid. But set down here-not in the
picturesque fisher speech, which is
goddess and unrefined-as it was told
me one summer twilight with the SIX V
light flaming gold and all hills asleep.
Be it known that the south coast OF
Nova Scotia is a rampant of solid rock
fronting the Atlantic snrges. Some
times the fog wells its stern precipices
and gray backed waves beat in from
the shrouded sea; and sometimes
great Gains descend, when the head
lands glass themselves all day in the
quiet water. There are huge lodges
cropping up out of the deep, and
sunken rocks where the surf takes on
a heavier note, and IN; les on miles of
frowning cliffs where the SHOWS lie
strangely white in winter. But there
are also broad harbors and sheltered
coves where the fishermen find shelter
in time OF storm.
The place called Tenants is good
example of the latter. 1t is wide and
deep, and a narrow entrance and a
girding of rocky hills. At its mouth
stands a fat white lighthouse, put
there, not for the importance of the
place, but because Tenant Cap sticks
far out into the Atlantic and the light
guides coastwise vessels to the town
twenty miles away. Seaward, east of
the entrance, lies Il rock on which
many a tall ship has come to grief
The charts mark it by a cross and the
legend: Breaker nearly always
shows" The fisher folk call it "The
Bull" because. hours before a storm
rolls up, its hoarse complaining can
be heard along the coast. Currents
which know no law beat upon il in
stormy weather, and of all the sea-
farers who there have met their doom,
alive or dead. The Bull claims it's
own and guards its secret well.
At the head of Tenant Harbor
streets OF white washed houses, with
a few slim wharves thrust out into the
still waters beneath. During certain
seasons of the year the place is lively
enough-when the little fleet of bank
ers is fitting out, for example, and the
harbor is astir with the passage of
loaded dories; or when the schooners
return deep-laden, and the gaunt fish
skids creak beneath their whitening
burden. But ordinarily all is quiet; the
men are absent half the year, while
the women and children till the rough
farms or tend the COWS and goats
which find scant pasturing On the
stormy hills.
Tenants impressed something of
its own character upon the early
generations of its settlers. Of former
days, it was secluded from the world
Withdrawn among its granite rock and
somber pine-scrub. The life and en-
vironment bred sturdy class; fisher
men who piled their trade from
Labrador to Cape Ann, from the
Grand Banks to the Georges; sailors
who built their own ships and took
them around the world There still
survives a certain capability OF hero
ism-rough, often uncouth, but none
the less genuine.
For many years the place retained
its quaint customs and modes of liv-
ing. The houses of a former day,
crammed with relics of ancient voy-
agings, sufficed. the fisherfolk. The
women chung to their huge hand looms
and wore the strong blue and gray
cloth of their own weaving. The
schooling of the children consisted of
what they could pick up from the
Catholic priest, who taught them
their letters as the spirit moved him
or the rheumatism permitted, and of
much unholy lore gathered along the
water front.
But in course of time the Govern
ment decided that the place required
the blessings of modern education. So
II school was organized and the primal
charm of Tenants vanished away.
Thus, one summer, the whites and
red schoolhouse stood finished. A
slim young man, with a beautiful
training, arrived from the city to take
charge, gather in recruits and gener-
ally modify the opinion of Tenants
that teaching and teachers were the
direct agents of the Devil.
The fishing fleet had come home
earlier than usual that season; by the
erd OF July all the schooners were
living at anchor with bearded rigging
and sides weathered to silver gray,
their flat bottomed dories moored in
long rows behind them. The skids
were spread with fish, cleaned and
split, drying under the hot sun, and in
the pleasant Northern twilight the
fishermen fore gathered to smoke and
talk.
Sometimes the young schoolmastel
smoked and talked with them, in pur
suance of a wise pedagogical policy
Far more frequently, however, he
went to large house which stood
apart from the village. And thereby
hangs this tale.
1t was because of the girl, the brown
eyed daughter of old John Shea. Hell
natural cleverness attracted him, JUS
as her simplicity and straightforward
ness were considerably more than al
| the world to the young fisherman
| Paul Fraiic.
Paul Fralic was handsome mar
and a strong, with the roughness o
his kind, but with much of its tender
ness as we'll. He had loved old Shea
daughter as long as he had been abb,
to love anything, and Tenants con
ceded his position by calling he
| raul girl. LIE HOTo 81 as III
sailed his own schooner-which signi
fed much. And that very summe
he-with a tremor in his deep voice
asked the girl 10 help him run"
little cottage that was rising near tn
harbor. Then the schoolmaster came
and before long Paul found the maid
en- was less eager to listen to his sea
tales or to admire the new cottage
where the fresh cut timber lay swse
on the air.
And the summer wore away. Pat
was absent for days at a time, fishin
Oh the off-shore Soundings. At eac
return he found more to anger hin