Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-08-03
LIETID SHADOWS.

! Lands End and JOHN o GEpats. &c
was What the Irish would have called
"a broth av bhoy," the Scotch, "a
young fellow"
Six feet three in his socks, broad in
proportion, 1.-the and cean-limbed,
| straight as lance, he went far to merit
some as ne was big. His face was large
and open, no single feature marring the
! harmony of the whole. Many a bonnie
lassie's heart beat faster when Donald
Carmichael went by.
! But there was a shadow on young
| Donald's life, against which his gifts of
face and physique went for naught.
| He was a stammerer. His affliction
was not of that mild form, commonly
met with, which is capable of being cen
/ trolled, and is accounted no great disad-
vantage. The malady had visited him in
its most viruent form.
He was able to form a sentence only
with the greatest difficulty, after re-
peated attempts. Even this was beyond
him upon frequent occasions. The small
est experience outside the routine of his
restricted life reduced him to absolute
indifference.
And Donald was shy. sensitive and
proud. His disability spoiled his life.
1t made HIM a connrmed recluse, hating
society, hugging solitude. And that is
why we find him in this lonely light
house on the northeast coast of Scot
land, That is why he had adopted a
calling which appealed only tn men such
as old Tammas, who was predestined
for the work, his father, grandfather and
great grandfather having been keepers
before him.
Tonight Donald was strangely rest
less. A peculiar mood was upon him;
he was fanciful, imaginative, apprehen-
sive He had an uneasy sense of i'm
pending calamity. Anything might hap
pen ON a night like this
What was that? A cry of distress, or
only the shrek of the wind2 Donald
looked with straining eyes out into the
brooding night. Surely that was a
schooner? He seemed to descry it strug-
Cling through the storm, reeling and
lettering, like wounded elk with merci-
! less dogs at its launches
Then a sudden impact of water driven
! by the fierce wind against the windows
of the lighthouse made vision impossible.
| When the ensuing hull occurred nothing
was visible on the face of the deep, 50
Donald concluded that the laboring
schooner had been Pigment of his mag
nation.
Toward dawn the storm abated in
fury, and a more comfortable state of
mind came to the watcher. He looked
toward the distant horizon with the
pail of cloud changed from black to a
sullen gray, developing by imperciptible
gradations into a fixed luminous purple
Then ne extinguished the lights.
His eyes, rowing once more over the
limitlcss cXpanse of ocean, suddenly al
tered their direction and looked sheer
down at the rugged rocks which consti
tuted the base of the lighthouse
What he saw there brought swift ex
preston to his eyes-of alarm, astonish-
ment, increduhty, startled awe Prone on
the rocks, Il few bare inches purchase
from the tapping water, was a human
form Donald concentrated his vision,
hut was unable to tell whether it was
man or woman, boy or girl; nor dared
! he hazard a guess whether the poor soul
was alive or dead.
He quickly reused old Tammas, and
together they descended to the rocks be-
low. Both stood for brief moment
inactive, silently regarding the body
which had escaped from the clutches of
the sea.
Twas maiden in the first access of
young womanhood-o some eighteen or
nineteen summers may he. She was
very beautiful to look upon.
Was that the pallid hue of death on
L l. 1. 4f,-.I
half sob escaped from Donald's throat
his heart was very tender.
"Puir bit lassie!" said Tommas.
"Some puir mither will greet sair the
NIGHT. Help me wi her, Donar Puir
bit lassie!"
Her waist was encircled by a life belt
though inSeusihle. she was still clasp
my it. They gently disengaged her fin
of the tower Donald tumbled the be.
lodgings of himself and Tammas to the
storeroom below. For three long DAYS
they fought for the girls life, No woman
could have heen more tender than were
these two rough men. Strange emotions
welled up in Donald's breast, and ere
/ long the labor for him had become one
OF love-
With joy they watched the color
stealing oovertly into the face of their
! patient, fand on the fourth day their
work was completed. The crisis was
past. the danger gone; the girl was
saved
1t was O'Clock one boisterous after
noon when she opened her eyes ana for
the first time was able iuteIligentv to
Iapprise her surroundings She looked
around her. marveliug greatly Then
she remembered the storm. the wreck
her struggle with the waves. So She
had been rescued; by whose hands She
did not know
Then Donald came.
lie stopped short on the threshold. If
the girl had been desirable before. what
was she now. her face lighted up by