Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-06-01
LIGHTHOUSE MAMIE.
BY HELEN FORREST GRAVES.


IL very uaTQ! Sulu .Nauule M Nalfu,
with pout. ''All the other girls are
dressing for Katie Stanbury's charade
party, and am here, all alone, like a
wretched little mouse, with no pleas
ure, and no prospect of any,
Miss Nairn was rather an exceptional
young person. Her boudoir was a
little square room of hewn stone, with
bull's-eye window of glass, so high
up that she had to cline on stool to
look out of it,. Her prospect, once
safely mounted on the stool, was of
rolling green waves, with here and
there a silver breasted gull darting
athwart the heaving surface; and her
sole companion in the circular tower
of Lone lighthouse was all old man of
sixty odd, who read 'Blair's Sermons,
and amused his leisure moments by
working out an unlimited series of
chess problems, which were contained
in a dogs-eared "Chess Manual"
There he sat by the window, where
the stormy red of the sunset streamed
in like splashes of blood against the
wall, musing intently over the black
and white squares of the board he
himself had painted on the deep win
dow-seat, with the ocean dashing in
sheets of foam at the foot of the light
house, and the wind shrieking around
it's iron-railed top.
"Uncle!' said Mamie, timidly.
"Well?"
He spoke without looking up from
the board.
''May 1 so on shore tonight?"
con shore? What do you want to
go on shore for?" he demanded petu-
lantly.
81 haven't stirred out of this dis
NAL place for week." pouted Mamie;
"and Kate Stanbury is to have a
charade party tonight, and she has in
vited me-"
"Pshaw!" said old Moses Nairn,
with one crooked finger lowering over
an ivory castle, like Fate persona
fed.
''But can't 7, uncle?" pleaded
Mamie.
''No, you can't. Michael has gone
to see lis mother tonight" shortly
answered the old man, ''and he'll not
be back before morning."
Il could row myself easily enough"
pleaded Mamie. '1've done it before
now, many and many time"
II don't choose to be left alone"
said Moses.
Mamie opened wide her bright blue
eyes.
why, uncle, you've been left alone
here often," she said
''That don't signify" snarled
Moses. "Im getting older now, and
/ tell you 1 don't choose to be left
alone"
81 shouldn't be gone long, uncle. 4"
''Will you leave off teasing me?"
suddenly demanded the old man.
And Mamie retreated, only to fling
herself on one of the circular stone
steps without, where she burst into
tears.
"And Charlie Cotesworth is to be
there" she sobbed, "and that young
officer from Leesborough; and 1 did
think so much of Katie Stanburys
charade party"
And the shrek of sea-winds, and
the thunder of breaking pillows
against the solid stone foundations
of Lone lighthouse was all the ans wer
that returned itself to her piteous
plant.
Mamie leaned out of the narrow,
slit-like easement, her dimpled face
and red brown curls framed quantity
in by the Jagged stone edges, and
looked down to where the newly
painted boat, secured by an iron chain,
rocked to and fro in the surf
''Half an hour to land" she said
to herself, "and half an hour back
again, and an hour to stay. l could
enjoy all the best of it, and be back
before uncle could possibly miss me.
He thinks, because he likes chess
problems and stuffy old books, that
every one else must. And he's eight
and-sixty, and I'm only eighteen; and
I've mended all his stockings and
ironed all his shirts, and there's moth
ing on earth to do but to sit and twirl
my thumbs. 1 will 60"
Softly the little rebel crept up the
stone stairs almost like moving sha-
dow, in the gathering dusk of the dim
old tower-softly she brushed out the
glistening spirals of the red brown
hair, and put on her prettiest dress
and freshest ribbons, shrouding them
all with gray serge cloak.
And before old Moses Nairn had
studied out the Problem sixty two
white to mate, in four moves" to
his satisfaction, the little boat was
rocking far toward land, moving
speck upon the surface of the deep,
with his niece, Mamie, resolutely
leaning to the oars.
AS she drew the grating keel upon
the shingly beach, and flung the chain
over huge wooden bulkhead tc
secure it, she turned and look ed back