Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-12-26
e s:tStoryette
MOSTLY UNFINISHED LIKE"

EFF you ever should care to marry,
happy"
Stewards eyes, soft and shy, gazed
at Miss Eliot admiringly.
why, Steward"
"Bekase you ken write so fast"
He rested on the long hair-cloth
seat that ran the length of the forward
cabin table, his bare brown arms
against the old plaid cloth supporting
his lowered face. A way he often
sat, like faithful spaniel.
Miss Eliot sat at the head of the
table in the captains chair, where she
could brace herself easily and profit
by what light fell from the skylight
overhead, where Steward fostered a
plant box containing few geraui
ums and potato vine started at
Angler.
why, eff l could write like you, you
wouldn' see me goin' as steward. I'd
be making thousand dollars ashore. "
But Miss Eliot was not writing fast
that morning. She was experiencing
the brain stagnation of long periods
al sea. There was nothing stimuli
tive in the lead-colored exterior mani
fest when the outside world tilted up
against the skylight; nor in the damp
soapy smell from the floor that
Steward had been scrubbing. The
wind was just enough ahead to give
disagreeable motion and to bear aft
from the galley uncomfortable doors.
She was disposed to let Steward en-
terrain, and satisfy her questioning
sense of other lives gone down to the
sea in ships. Lives always in some
way out of the common, and breeding
a kinship with others of the same sort,
even If known only through narration.
That floating gossip of the ships that
runs its channels just as surely in the
ailing world of similarity in constant
change as other gossip runs ashore.
Were there ladies on the last ship
you were in?" she asked Steward.
I'm the Sea Sentinel? Oh, yes, miss.
1t was then we had aboard Miss Brad
ford toll you about. She could
write faster than you. She used TO
write for the papers an when we
would come into port there used to be
big bundle of them come out TO her.
an I used to see what was on them !;
an The captain would laff at her when
she put in things about the ship. like
between decks when she ought to
so Aob A. H.,
captains daughter, Miss Evie, an aw-
full nice young lady. They was both
write for the papers, an when we
nice young ladies. An | used 10 tell
every one so, though sometimes they
used to make me wild. So mucn GO
ings on in port. But Miss Bradford
rsel t. come out after the company
was gone an say, &c tine towel an
I'll help you, steward an she would
put on one Of my aperons an hurry
about, an IT would make me laf to
see her,-she was so little"
Was she pretty?"
We'll, she was passably-losking
young lady, an when she was dressed
smart an her eyes hinying she looked
real nice; or when the color was in
her face, like when Mr.. Kerr used to
come aboard But she wasn't tall an
fine like Miss EVE. They uscd TO
look nice when they went ashore 20
gether. An when they got new things
they used always to show them to me,
dresses an hats, an when we was in
France, lovely petticoats, shadowing
and catching the light IKE clouds"
And what about Mr.. Kerr, Stew
ard?"
Steward was very cautious before
he replied
We'll. / liked him when he first
came aboard, he was so smiling like;
an no matter who was there he used
to wait until he could get near to Miss
Bradford; an he wouldn't swallow
more than one cup CT their tea unless