Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-07-18
CHAPTER l.
THE BREAKING OF AN ENVIRON
MENT.

The single street of Grayborough
runs down hills that face the sea on
thqt rock-oound coast of Maine, where
All winter long turbulent waves show
changing gray faces to a sky. Far out
are little islands of stones that cerve
nc picturesque visions for summer
turists, and. when the storms come
Gown eat ships. 1t is a community of
shopkeepers, boarding housekeepers re-
tired seamen, resident farmers, a law
Y.r or two. enc doctor, four ministers.
q woman who writes for fiction
weeklies, and is therefore literary
person seagoing men WHO sail along
the coast in schooners, and listless me-
chanCS carpenters, wheelwrightS and
SO on. Tor three hundred years the
same families have lived there and they
have intermarried until every one is
akin TO every one else. You cannot
stand in front of the little hotel and
say that Jedeiah Robbins is a,skinflint
without arousing the wrath OF Mehita-
bel Brown. whose grandmother
married areat-grand-secon
Of Robbins. In the summer time, occa-
sonal visitors come from the great
cities. attracted there by the singing
s.. air and quiet. For six weeks the
place is excited into spasms by men in
knickerbockers, girls in bicycle skirts,
.he whack Of tennis rackets, the click
Of golf balls. moonlight fiirtations,
mandolin serenades, light laughter and
song. The residents look with set re-
proving faces upon these evidences of
~, 4 hn oh
Der has come settle back into the won't
ed routine with gossip material to last
them through the winter. The life in
Grayborough is hard, narrow, devo-
tional, mcnotonous. In 1879 old Eph-
riam Butler, who used to be mate Of
the schooner Polly, to and from theBer-
mudas for onions. went to Bangor,
stayed three days and returned with a
quart OF Medford rum, from which he
publicly and fearlessly drank in Sam
uel Higgins grocery. 1t will take him
three years longer to regain his social
status.
Near the end of the street furthest
from the bay lives Miss Tabitha Eng
lish, who owns to 45 years. She is
narrow-hipped and flat-bosomed with
iron gray hair, thin lips and a large
nose. Earlier in life she had leanings
toward Universalism. but has fepented
and is now an earnest Presbyterian.
Sue has little house and little gar
d'h and little income derived from
her fathers estate. With her lived her
niece, Lois English. AS the story I'M
der narration is practically the story
OF this young woman, it is proper here
to state who and what she was.
In that staid, still, somber town she
bloomed as some strange tropical flow
er might bloom FOR an hour upon a
rock-ribbed pinnacle OF Greenland
She was of straight New England
strain. except that three generations
back, upon the distaff side of the house,
there had been an admiXture of French
blood from Canada. and in her the
Geatbless Latin fire showed as 1t had
showed in her mother and her mothers
mother With this dash Of the fiery
songinspired fluid of Province came
her name, Lois. Her mother had died
when the child was 5 months old.
Three years later her 'ather, rs brave
and competent a seaman as eve set
hls life cpon cas-, III all those stormy
waters, went to a grave which had
y2wned before him since his boyhood.
Aunt Tabitha took the infant and rear
ed her into womanhood according to
her lights, which were dim, but steady.
The girl, showing evidence even when
child of strange beauty and strange
contradictions of character went
through the public school at Gray
borough, through the high school at
Augusta and the modest seminary for
young ladies in Massachusetts. Her
father left enough money TO educate
her and the wish that it should be ex-
pended in fitting her for a battle with
tho world. Her rigid aunt scrupuously
accounted for every dollar of it, Sub
sequetly Lois was trained for year as
professional nurse in Philadelphia.
sickenet of the business, attended a
Normal CT two and became a school
teacher She spoke German slowly but
correctly and as 4 gift of heredity,
battered French With The soft slurs and
ease g. he people jus; above Mar
settles. She was an exp ert needle
worker and Z fair musician, possessing
contraltoyoiceo OF wonderful depth aud
purity. with strange pathos and pas
sion in IL that sounded strangely to the
people among whom she was born.
pom the native warmth of her charac-
Ter was grated through early environ
ment a certain repression of manner
she walked among them volcano OF
an icy outward seeming. Thoroughly
pure. thoroughly honest. disdainful of
petty trick or artifiee. with dreams
which she dreamed alone and ambi-
,t'cns which she stified or hid, she went
aeI way utterly out of sympathy with
'Ae small village affairs which made
up her aGnt's existence, secretly long
.ng 10 escape. yet owning the obliga-
uoh fastened upon her by that ancient
maiden ard determined to repay ii with
'onlpanionship and help. though her
oNh young life burnt itself out and be-
came ashes during the hard years
when we're 10 follow. She worked
Nsth her Few pupils morning and after
Moons and the evening she devoted TO
making the home life more cheerful. II
Us task beyond the strength OF the
F3A srSt. because there was no cheer
IN Aass Iabitha English. She had nc
sense OF eumor. no understanding OF
'ne large affairs Of tn world; NO inter-