The Tupelo journal., 1902-10-10

" A1N. " lin. "A = . IlS . Liz
only life for met Humph! Then the
first thing you know, u stiff breeze
blows up from somewhere, an, as /
say. not KNOWN the first thing bout
tackin'. or takin' down a sail or
h'istin' one, the next thing hat hap
pens is this: The boat gives one big
whirl, an stands on the wrong end.
Then the next mornin' you read a
long list o the dead, with black lines
round it. Humph!"
He smoked fully five minutes of ex-
asperating silence before he COM
menced again.
'That there boat over there" he
groaned, was as neat a little cat
boat as ever h'isted sail in these
here waters, an there want nobody
killed in the wreck O. her, fortu-
nat1y; but / laid it to "a kind O. spe-
cial Providence watchin' over fools
an young people, judgin' hat vas
what prevented it,"
He gave several vigorous and ex-
haustive puffs upon his pipe, leaving
the story to lag, a habit peculiar to
him.
"It has all the earmarks of having
been a gem of a boat" L essayed,
starting him.
"Gem! 1t was a jew'1! An if it
hadn't been for" Hating, he shook
his head, speechless for a space
through sheer Indignation. at was
like this" he resumed upon his re-
covery. "All summer long there'd
been a pretty, young girl here in one
o. them cottages over there" point
ing to the curve of the beach fringed
by a row of little shingled houses
the color OF dust. with her mother,
a tall, straight, slim, white-haired
woman with what they called "a
'ristocratic air. She had a distant
relative what was related to some
body or other belongin' to the navy
or somethin', an that was what gave
it to her, they said. The girl want
quite SO Observation-Disclosures as her
mother, but the young fellers they
swarmed round her like bees round
a honeycomb, just the same. T.
Between 'em they KEEP us guessin'.
Out of a dozen or more there was
three pretty much neck an neck in
the runnin'. One was a young actor
chap what come down from the city,
AN stayed with her from Saturday
mornin' till Monday mornin'. Reg
ular as the day come 'round-as
clockwork, you might say-there he
come, an there he stayed. Another
was the rich Teller what owned the
boat.
"An' the third was a man what
didn't seem to have anything a tall
to do but hang round that there cot
tage every day in the week, an Sun
day, too, the livelong, endurin' time,
b'gosh! The livelong, endurin' time!
you'd a thought" blowing away
the smoke, and regarding me with a
calm gaze at one large and contem-
p~lative, that, SEEM he had so much
time on his hands while the others
was at work, an was so industrious
tage-makin' hay while the sun was
shinin',,you might say-that the wind
would fn'lly blow him her way for
good. But that's just where you'd
be mistaken. Girls like her never
takes what the wind blows their
way. What they wants is somethin'
they have to go sailin' after, an
catch by the ropes, an work till their
hands is blistered TOWN. to land.
anyhow, the bettin' on the island
was pretty solid for this Teller, with
nothin' to do but to go a-fishin' an
a-swimmin' and a-saiIin' round the
bay, an maxim love to her mornin',
oon an night, persistin' in it an
persistin' in it in spite o. the white
haired mother frownin' him down an
tryin' her level best to freeze him
with her ~'ristocratic air, an dead
agin the rich Teller what owned the
boat, because the mother was with
him. Anybody what knows anything
knows that nothin' sets a young girl
SO agin a teller as havin' her mother
allus aggin' her on to marryin' him"
He meditatively crossed mi leg
over the other.
"But them" settling himself COM
fortably in the sand, "where a wo-
man is consumed there amt never
no tellin' what to think. Like as
not, when the bettin' is surest she'll
ring in a dark horse on you every
time.
"Of the three, 'cordin' to my no.
tion," he reflected, after a period of
inward consultation, "the actor chap
was the finest man. Tall an broad
shouldered an handsome. Pleasant
spoken, too, he was, sort o. glib O.
tongue, like he had to be, I s'pose, in
his business. Nothin' a tall wrong
with him, IS fairs 1 could see, ex-
ceptin' he didn't have no money, an
no prospect O. any,"
"It often happens" said /, as he
paused, seemingly awaiting some re-
mark upon the subject pro or con.
you're right" he assented. Its
the best Teller nearly every time
what's broke"
"And them"
"Well, n day when they was all
in the city but the actor chap, she
an him an another Teller, Mcclure
by name, took the rich chaps cat
boat an went sailin'. The actor
didn't know nothin' bout sailin', an
Mcclure knew less. Then, to have
the cheek to take the rich feller's
boat! An such a boat!
"The minute we saw 'em start out