The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-18

It had been a fair day, merry day.
 and many important things had hap
 pened in it. A new cave had been dis
 covered, and a new haunt of the fiddler
 crabs. A large rent in the skirt of the
 tomboy showed she had not been idle.
 But now the sun was setting, and eve- rything was hushed The tomboy.
 when she reached the rocks whose sides
 were gray with barnacles, stood still a,
 moment, looking back at the golden sea.
 All quiet; not sound from the lazy,
 hazy water or the stretch of sand; only
 a pungent smell of fish from the blaclc
 rocks, and whiff from the salt mead-
 oWs where the rosemary grew; not even
 little wind, but the great unblinking
 sun dropped slowly, slowly The tom-
 boy felt little tired, and became con- sclous of a darge bruise on her knee, be- sides a general muscular weariness.
 She Wished-but tea was ready. And that long way.
 She bounded from the rocks like a goaded charger and sped along the
 beach. There lay the old Nevada. still at anchor, but there was no time to peer into her cabin. The fishermen's houses were left behind; the sinking pebbles under foot were changed to hard, wet sand; the course lay smooth and red be- tween the ebbing tide and the rank green meadow grass, with not an obsta- cle save some small creek some tuffet of wet, boggy weeds, some tender little shel. The soul of the tomboy spoke to. her strength as a warrior urges his horse. She broke into gallop such as only she could use, and the footprirts of those rubber soled shoes were yard apart The birches in the dist ance be- came one long white streak, the mead- ows disappeared She cleared the tuf- fets and the streams with long, raptur- ous bounds, and the pools the tide had left were shivered into spray as she dashed through them. On and on and never stopping; the sun set, and with it went the peace of evening. The wild ness of the night was coming on Far out at sea the ships were scudding fast- er and the seabirds wheeled and screamed in collaboration The waves began to mutter and to braw1 upon the shore, while over all the wind, a great salt wind went singing and rushing and stirring up all nature for revel. It made the meadows and the birches sway, it touched the waves with anger. it roared in the ears of the tomboy as she ran.
 The tomboy doubled her pace and fled before the advancing dusk. Her tawny locks streamed away on the wind, her torn skirt Tapped behind her. Into her tanned cheeks came a glow, into her eyes came a joy, into her heart came a glorious madness, such madness as the young centaurs might have felt when they dashed in the shadows of the sea, when the world was young. She and -he rising waves, she and the whistling wind, she and the calling birds all were ,ne, all were alike Strength and swift ness, joy and freedom were theirs, and hey gloried in it.
 The course was run- The cottage 'oofs appeared. The sound of tea1beiis linked in the distance. A gentle star ooked down upon the tomboy as she 'lackened pace. And as the waves and hat long stretch of dark red sand were eft behind, she felt very tired. With s>S hanging head she went along the street, with a suMburnt hand the arge rent in her skirt. rt.--Colunbia Lite- ary Monthly