Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1900-08-25

D school was organized and the primal
charm of Tenants vanished away.
Thus, one summer, the white and
red schoolhouse stood finished. a slim
young man. with a 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 fleet 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 a silver gray.
their flat-bottomed dories moored in
long rows behind them. The skids
were spread with fshy cleaned and
split, drying under the hot sun, and
in the pleasant northern twilight the
fishermen foregathered to smoke and
talk
Some times the young schoolmaster
smoked and talked with them, in pur-
suance of a wise pedagogical policy.
Far more frequently, however, he
went to a large house shich stood
apart from the village. And thereby
hangs this tale.
1t was because of the girl-the
brown-eyed daughter of old John
Shea. Her natural cleverness attract
ed him, just as her simplicity and
straightforwardness were consider
ably more than all the world to the
young fisherman, Paul Fraiic.
Paul FraIic was a handsome man
and strong, with the roughness OF
his kind, but with much of its ten
derness 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 hen
"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 rum
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 a time. fish
ing on the off-shore soundings. At
each return he found more to anger
him. but never a chance TO clear up
his doubts. When he visited the big
house it was to sit outside with the
father, smoking in black silence
while the schoolmaster read or talked
TO the girl.
Paul was 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"
What's up now?" asked Sam, who
was also fisherman, and had rejoiced
in Paurs good luck
wal, I'm a-goin' TO take the schoon-
er out Boston way, m try fer cargo
this winter. An 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
the school was in full swing. Paul
never went to the big house.
He was fitting out the schoon-
er 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 a week later that the first
of the autumn gales swept in from
the Atlantic. Now. on the day that
the storm was getting up to seward
Paul Fralic went to his schooner early
an the morning to prepare for start
when the weather modera ted. Gray
was the sky in the offing, 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 WATERFALL saw a small
rowboat put out from one of the
wharves and head for the open sea.
be looked at 1t 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 n hio Sfnrrn
The boat-a light thing with a
single occupant-kept we'll under the
shore, and it was with difficulty that
Paul recognized the tall, slim figure
of the oarsnAan. 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 son-in-law; that it was only
six miles eoastwise to the next village,
where the railroad ran to the city;
and lastly, that the youth himself was
hot-headed and impulsive Also, there
was a hidden nafh hv which aDvO1a