The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-03-25
WAITING MOTHER.
BY EMILY F. GR1NNELL.

"You see, said the lake engineer, in reply
to question | had asked, it S strange the
sort of thingh that will stick in your mem
DRY longest. Take, for instance, an expert
ence | had few years ago. | expect III
forget lots of more important things before
forget that.
"There wasn't any railroad along the
shore then, and all the little towns and the
summer resorts depended on the shore
boats, sometimes one and sometimes two,
that piled I'D and down and carried freight
and passengers.
'jSome OF those s4nall places have good har-
bors and some you can't get near in rough
weather, although they have docks quar-
ter of mile long. This place | am going
to tell you about was one of that kind.
"That summer Capt. Jim Elliot and /,
we bought the kittie Clark She' was a
stanch little craft, and we figured to run
her ourselves and save expense. Ours was
the only shore boat then.
Gone day early in the season we made
this village speak of on our way down and
took on a passenger, young boy who had
consumption, and was going away to some
sanitarum to see if his health wouldn't inn
prove He didn't look to me as if he would
ever be any better in this world, but we
brought him down. and he took the train
and went wherever he was going.
at got along in the fall. The resorts
were all closed and business was pretty near
over for the season. It's just about then
we get our first and often our nastiest
storms. The big freighters run longer, but
we were not working for anybody. that ex-
pected lis to risk OUT lives for the sake of
making another trip. so we We're ready to
lay up.
"When we were about starting up-shore,
thinking probably we wouldn't make but
one more trip. if he:c didn't come this con-
sumptive again, wa1,ting to be taken home,
and this time he was on his last legs, GER
tain.
'TIe did not look as though he would live
"a hours, and what made it worse, it was
fixing for spell of weather, and twas likely
to be about all we wanted to do to run the
boat. without takirg care of any sick folks.
"Still, it didn't seem the square thing not
to carry him. as he hadn't any other way
of getting home. So Capt. Jim and I talked
it over, and we got him aboard and into the
captains berth. ard there he stayed.
"Then we got that spell o. weather. 1t
rained and blew and froze till everything
on that boat was sheeted over with ice, her
captain and engineer included. We made
out to keep headed up the lake, and that
was about all. nat little Kitty Clark
would go ahead bit, then she'd stop and
kind o SILVER as the sea took her, for all
the world the way horse will when it's in
mortal fear. Seemed as if she was some
thing alive and fighting for every next
breath in those smothering waves Well
that was just the way with that sick boy
He laid there struggling to catch his breath
and the captain and I we'd run in every few
minutes to see if he was alive yet, and give
him swaller O water
"When l look back at that now, it seems
like kind of blnrred-over nightmare, but
one figure in it stands out clear enough
That was the boys mother. When we final
ly pounded our way to within sight of this
place where the boy belonged, there she
stood, watching for us, clear out to the yer!
end of that dock She had shawl over he
head and the Wind thrashed and switched
her clothes as if 1t would tear EN- to tatters
but she appeared to lean way out over tn
water to get nearer to us. I don't know a
I ever saw anything that seemed to meal
more. Course L knew well enough that W.
couldn't get into that place for hours, ant
she knew it as we'll as we did. All we coulc
do was to beat along up to Tawas and drol
anchor there till the weather cleared, ane
that's what we did.
eve were pretty near worn out with al
we'd been through, but we turned in ant
took care of that boy. We did all we coult
think of to keep life in him, and in abou
u hours, when things let up little, w
went back flying.
There was that woman standing on
there looking, looking, as if she'd waite
there all the while-she had, for all know
We got her boy off all right, and he died il
his own bed, with her tending to him.
81 don't know as / can make you see
the way do" the engineer resumed, afte
a pause. 81 suppose | sensed it more, m
mother being dead She died when wa
little, mother did. There was snarl of u
boys. | used to wake up nights and hea
her praying that the Lord would spare he
till we got some bigger. Well, whenever
get to thinking about that woman standin
out there all alone, with the wind and tn
sleet and the mad lake itself beating owe
her, it puts me in mind of mother. eNpec
somewhere she's waiting with just tina
same look in her eyes. youths Compan
ion.