Omaha daily bee., 1902-04-20

their prey, and then anon heavily taking
wing for yet another plunge.
Seamews, gulls and terms mingled their
screams, and truth to tell, I never heard a
concert that l liked better. Sweeter was
the noise to me than any nightingales that
! have since heard singing on the vine ter
races Of France or among the gardens of
Como.
All this eased my mind and made me
glad. For / cannot say that / was I'M
happy on the isle OF Inch Jonet. l knew
that l was doing my duty. Until the
fulness Of the time I could do no more.
Kate was my charge as surely as IL she
had been committed to me by our father.
Also l had time to think, which, in the
press of study and work 1 never seemed
to have had in all my life before.
Day by day, therefore, we went to and
fro searching for plants, rock plants, sea
kale, whorled caraway, pale butterwort,
green seaspleenwort and hlmy fern, nested
in soft messy places hard to find and harder
to reach when found.
These and other treasure troves were a
continual delight to Kate. and 1 never re-
vealed the fact that in the earliest morn
ing I had marked down most of the covies.
1t was, besides, the greatest Of pleasures to
AC ~ 1NS Az PoA ShONh AZ" no VIC NohAE
upon some treasure hitherto undiscovered
We left the root to bloom again another
year, carrying away for our portfolio only
the flower and stem, with perhaps a seed
or two. 1t is impossible to tell the distrac-
ton and occupation all this made for my
dear sister, and how the constant change
and open-air exercise kept her from brood
ing upon her troubles.
We had always breakfast together in the
kitchen, with sometimes not a little laugh
ter in trying to make old Jonet understand
our meaning by dint Of finger play and
choosing such scant words of English as
she understood.
Then out again to the copses or along the
shore with baskets and canisters. Some
times we would battle in the clear green
water to the westward Of the bar, at a
place where the fine gravel ran far down.
Coming back we ate purple dulse from the
walls Of q little cavern and the clean
astringent taste of It comes back to me
still unblunted across the years.
In the afternoons l read, mostly in some
sheltered nook. while Kate worked or with
the most exquisite neatness laid down on
cardboard the plants which had been COM
pletely pressed and dried. felt more hope
that her old self would revive, from the
~ bAG NOSh ~ NAAo - hNh
from anything else, her swift, delicate
handicraft and natural taste helping her
to make little pictures out Of many OF our
treasures.
In the evening we walked again by the
shore, often till the sun went dow and
the stars came out, for l would force my
self to tire my sister out, that she might
sleep naturally and so pass the night which
l dreaded most for her.
Thus It was when we were alone. And
how much sweeter to me than when Mr..
Rupert came! Somehow l could not accept
the fact that he was indeed Hates hus-
band and that she loved him. For me, /
never trusted him from the moment | set
eyes upon him. He was forever s~neering
at John and making compliments, often
double-edged, to me. But this is neither
time nor place TO be bitter. The months
we're drifting TO the elimination, the bright
days running all too swiftly through the
sandglass. Mr.. Rupert's visits grew fewer
and shorter. Yet, strange as II may seem,
Kate appeared not to miss him SO greatly,
nor to yearn for him so overpoweringly as
at hrst. Another love was beginning to
stir In her heart.
And so-and so-till the empty hourglass
turned Of its own accord. and one stormy
night In late autumn there was heard on
Inch Jonet, mingling with the crash OF the
waves on the beach and the trumpet clang
OF the wild swans going southwark in their
ordered hles, that most unmistakable and
thrilling OF human sounds. the crying OF
a man child just born into the world.
Ito BE Continued.)