The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1900-08-04

| nent decided tnat the pace required
the blessings of modern education. So
a school was organized and the primal
charm of Tenants vanished away.
| Thus, one summer, the white and
| red Schoolhouse stood finished. y slim
| young man. with beautiful training,
arrived from the city to take charge,
| gather in recruits and generally to
modify the opinion of Tenants that
teaching and teachers were the direct
agents of the devil.
| The fishing feet had come home
earlier than usual that season; by the
end of July all the schooners were
| lying at anchor with boarded rigging
| and sides weathered to silver gray,
their fat-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 foregathered to smoke and
talk.
Sometimes the young schoolmaster
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 O
brown-eyed daughter of old John
Shea. Her natural cleverness attract
ed him, just as her simplicity and
raightforwarGpess were consider
ably more than all the world to the
young fisherman, Paul Fralic.
Paul Fralic was handsome man
and strong. with the roughness of
his kind. but with much of its ten
Gerness as well. He had loved old
Shea's daughter as long as he had been
able to love anything. and Tenants
conceded his position by calling her
"Paurs girl" The more so as he
sailed his own schooner-which signi-
fed much. And that very summer,
he-with a tremor in his deep voice
asked the girl to help him run" a
little cottage that was rising near the
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 smell of fresh-cut timber
lay sweet on the air.
And the summer wore away. Paul
was absent for days at time, fish
ing on the otf-shore soundings. At
each return he found more to anger
him. but never chance to clear up
his doubts. When he visited the big
house it was to sit outside with the
e., - Ill I'll
while the schoolmaster read or talked
to the girl.
Paul was a man of few words. but
his heart was brave. Therefore he
went down one day to the cottage.
1t was nearly completed and he
looked it over grimly. Then he adj
dressed the carpenter who had saun-
tered up.
"'Guess you needn't finish this yer
shack jest yet, Sam. Mebbe | won't
want it so soon, arter ALL"
whats up now?" asked Sam, who
vas also fisherman. and had rejoiced
in Paul's good luck.
"Wal. I'm a-goin' to take the schoon-
er out Boston way, n try fer cargo
this winter. An I guess you can leave
the house wait bit now"
The other man stared, but Paul
turned away, walking slowly toward
the village. and the cottage was left
to the sun by day and the moon by
night, and always to the moaning
wind,
The year grew on to autumn, and
| g. al
never went to the big house.
He was fitting out the schoon-
err for the winter. In the in
tervals of work he sought the
bluff at the harbor mouth that
watched the troubled waters round
the Bull. kinder cranky" said the
village fishermen. Once he saw in
the distance the schoolmaster APP
preaching with the girl. After that
he went there no more.
1t was week later that the first
of the autumn gales swept in from
the Atlantic. Now. onthc day that
the storm was getting up to seward
Paul Fralic went to his schooner early
in the morning to prepare for start
when the weather moderated. Gray
was the sky in the offng. with patches
of flying cloud-rack, while the ground
swell grumbled all along the coast,
sending great smooth waves to rock
the vessels anchored at Tenants.
There was no cause for anyone to
leave the harbor; yet, as day bright
ened over the water Paul saw a small
rowboat put out from one of the
wharves and head for the open sea.
He looked at it curiously, knowing
that all the fishermen were busy on
shipboard and that none of them had
any business at the harbor mouth in
the face of big storm.
The boat-a light thing with
single occupant-kept well under the
shore, and it was with difficulty that
Paul recognized the tall, slim figure
Of the oarsman. When he did, three
things came to his remembrance.
That old John Shea had treated the
schoolmaster with oaths and con-
tumely and finally had fatty refused
him as n son-in-law; that it was only
six miles coastwise to the next village,
| whore fhe railroad ran IN tho CITY.