The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-12

The town Of Shepperton is on the southeast
coast Of England. and as yet is not get
ting 10 be known too much. But some Of US
like it only too well, and arc apt in the
sheer goodness and kindness Of our hearts
10 recommend all our friends to go there
so that there is every chance of its soon be-
coming as popular as Ramsgate or Margate
or Westgate-on-Sea. and therefore 1 have
not ventured to put its real name down any,
where in these columns. Not l am afraid
that that retentiveness will do much. for
among the friends to whom in a moment
of prodigal effusiveness I recommended
Shepperton in profound confidence and with
pledges of utter secrecy, was a distinguished
London journalist, and he went down there
and reveled in its picturesque delights and
It's comparative loneliness, and then he
turned back to London and made a treInen-
dous boom" of it in his paper, land now"
said some Of the earlier settlers to me re-
proachfully, 1.-The place is done for and we
need not come here any more. We can leave
# to AIRY and 'Arriet"
Meanwhile the "Saucy Arethusa" lay toss
ing at her moorings, as j have said The
"Saucy Arethusa" was a sort of hired yacht
which my friend, Colin Marshman. used to
become the lessee of, if I may so express it,
every season. Sometimes Dick Gregory
foned with him, and went half shares in
ownership, management and steering. Some
times I did, sometimes neither of us did.
But all the same Colin Marshman every
summer and autumn annexed the services of
the 'Saucy Arethusa."
TIE little yacht belonged to family who
had d peculiar position in Shepperton. The
mother, a widow, was HOW head of the
house Her husband and her eldest son had
been drowned within her very sight while
endeavoring to rescue some of the crew of
a wrecking vessel-there are terrible storms
off the Shepperton coast in late winter and
early spring. Mrs. Melody, the widow, had
10 90 to work in good earnest after that.
She had to support a family of two sons
and two daughters, all quite young, for the
eldest son was only fourteen years old when
he was drowned. She had loved her husband
dearly, but she was not left much time for
idly lamenting over him. AS she told the
story herself. she used to say that after his
burial she often saw him in her dreams,
and that he always said to her: Minnie,
my darling, never mind about me. but look
after the children and try and make living
for them. I'm all right, and I'll wait for
you"
They are a. simple lot, these fisher folk of
Shepperton, but perhaps philosophy and
theology themselves could not have found
much better advice. to give to poor Minnie
under all the conditions. So Minnie worked
hard night and day. She managed with the
help of friends to start a lodging house,
with a shop underneath it in which she sold
spars and shells and all manner of little
local curios which dodgers from London are
- nd
she became the owner of bathing boxes,
and later on of the Saucy Arethusa, which
was a yacht in season and a fishing boat
out of it. Her two sons grew up to be
strong, brave, hearty fellows. Her elder
daughter got married to a well-to-do man
in Brighton, and the younger daughter, like
the mother, gave lessons to ladies from Lon
don i'm the art and mystery of swimming.
For many seasons there were regular Wis
itors from London, but the place showed
happily no signs of becoming popular hol-
iday resort This suited Mrs. Melody, the
owner of the bathing boxes and the Saucy
Arethusa. very well. She had enough to do
every season. The same people came down
and took her lodgings and hired her yacht,
the same London ladies took lessons IN
swimming every year from herself and her
daugbter-at the beginning of each season
they had quite forgotten all that they had
learned up to the end of last. Her two sons
Willie and Christie made up the crew OF the
Saucy Arethusa- Her only other assistant
was a young man named Randolph, more
commonly called "Randie' Grimes-a hand
some. sullen looking young fellow, In whose
special care were the bathing boxes and the
stretch of beach on which they lay, ana
who, according to village and seaside gossip,
tod az JFDIT a
prettv and graceful Dolly Melody, the
Widows unmarried daughter. No one who
saw Dolly as she passed along the road in
front of her house, with her shapely 1orm'
her healthy picturesque movements, her
rich yellow hair and her sparkling eyes,
could find any fault with young Grimes $
taste. Those who saw her in her bathing
costume as she showed the London ladies
how to swim and dive and take header
would have wondered how any young man
could look at her and not fall into a state
of honest admiration.
When Colin Marshman first discovered
Shepperton Dolly was but mere child-she
was even still only nineteen years old.
Something had gone wrong with Colin
Marshman. all his London friends said. He
had made name for himself at his school
and at his university His father and
mother had both died while he was still
young and left him considerable property.
People predicted all good things of him.
lie would go into Parliament, they said
and make a name, or he would write books
and make a name--or so to the bar and
make d name-or do something else and
make a name. But the one thing certain
IN q sadly uncertain world was that Colin
Marshman was TO make a name.
Time vert on and he did not make name
or make anything His career seemed all
10 come to a close. He rocked himself at
ease on Lethe's wharf although he was not
at all like Shaksperes fat weed being
indeed rather lank and sinewy. When some
of us endeavored 10 conjecture what it was
all about we We're generally inclined to set
it down TO some disappointment in love
affair But we really knew nothing about
Il. ] had been in the United States for
some years and Dick Gregory had been in
India, and we were about his Oldest friends.
When I returned to England l simply found
him in the Shepperton condition. He never
told me anything about his life in the mean
while and 1 never cared to ask him. But
liked to go down to Shepperton and to lodge
with him in the hOu1e of Mrs Melody and