The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-03

what Uncle Tom said-horrid things-that l took opiuin-that was out of my mind,
 and if it had not been for you, Vida, they
 would have put your poor mother away.
 But now we are going home at last-and Jacob will be good to us, as he was in the first days when we were poor. You see he has sent for Us of his own ae- cord. They tell me-Uncle Tom says
 that it is such a magnificent place. with
 gardeners and hot-houses. and grapes in punches dhough l don't believe your fla ther will allow us to cut them), and more than one man-servant. Oh. l don't know how I shall ever venture to speak to | them-n'
 ''I dol' cried Vida. bristing up, lioness | like, I'll speak to them. if they so much | as dare to look as if they would smile | at my mother"
 And now kind of dear Jacob to give us
 this splendid cruise in his own ship, all l round by the north of Scotland-!" "Rubbishl" said Vida, shortly. Now.
 sit up, mother, and I will arrange your
 pillows for you. You are slipping down | much too low There-that's betteri Fa- 1 ther wanted us out of the way while | longer, that's all. l suppose you thinkshe I ordered this nice smooth weather, too, specially, so that we could be nice and | comfortable"
 1 Tt would have been just like him if he
 
 but with a certain glint of pleasure in her
 dim eyes, q mean like what he used to thrusting out her hands as if pushing something horrld away.
 The mother raised her hands in pained
 deprecation.
 "Oh, Vida, you must not-remember
 the Fifth Commandment-the first with
 promise
 "Oh, yes I know, mother. that is all
 very we'll" said Vida, but it says, too
 like as father pltieth his children doesn't it? And Jacob Romer hasn't pitied
 me a bit Why then, should l honor him?f
 The mother found no other reply than
 the simple restatement of the command
 ment and of the fact, equally incontest- able, that he was Vda's father. The girl
 shrugged her shoulders a little behind her
 mothers back, and made a grimace that | said clearly that Jacob Romer, when he came to reckon with his daughter, would
 find quite other material on his hand than l in his wifes case
 On board The Good Intent there ap- | peared to be but little cargo. It was, in | fact, a pleasure cruise for the benefit of
 the owners wife and daughter. The mas ter had sauted them with curt civility
 when they had come on board with James | Kahn. The two or three sailors went 1 about their duties as usual, but seemed | to give the passengers as wide a berth | as possible. So the supercargo was in
 valuable to them. James Kahn was not | above serving their meals, and as interim | ships cook was evidently artist in
 his way. He had found some comfortable
 old red-plush furniture and put them into
 the little cabin. In fact, no one could l possibly have been kinder, said the wife | of his employer.
 | It was in June that they sailed away | to the north-in these attitudes a month | of uncanny calms and sudden uncertain | St John's-eve storms upon the deadly | Cape Wrath seas and among the black | thick-sown reefs of the Hebrides. Net amidst these lay their course, and neither Vida .nor her mother noticed that a couple of roomy whale-boats were the chief new and striking pieces of naval | furniture on board.
 After they had passed the Firth of Pent- land and stood westward, they were pur- ! sued by series of chill northerly winds.
 not so much tempestuous as deadly, with the nip of icebergs not far away Vida loved the keen Arctic breath, and wished that they could go far enough Polewards to catch sight of Farce, or even of the | white wastes of the Vatna Jokull itself | But each day her mother shivered and | wrapped herself in shawls, and yet more | shawls.
 | In spite of all she would hot stay be- | low.
 1 q must be out in the sunshine-Jacob | would wish it. she said in answer to
 every remonstrance. "He is giving us ! this chance. We may never have the
 like again-and in his own ship, too! I
 would never forgive myself. No, mo-, 1 Vida, I must stay on deck.'' | Through a dreamlike serenity they
 sailed first west and then south. Some
 times they would keep the same horizon
 about them all day. The winds. though
 chill enough, were so light that the sails often hung lax and motionless. But, all the same, it was a memorable time for | the sick woman.
 "I am happy Vida, darling" she would | say, as she sat with her daughters hand 1 clasped in hers under the awning which | Vida had stretched for her. "Oh, so hap py! I never felt so happy in my life not even when l was first married. You are a good daughter to me, Vida" | Everything about them was ''nice," and
 after this there could be no higher praise But, swift as a lion from behind a l bush, western tempest, gyrating land | ward on the warm swirls of the gulf | stream, aprang upon them one night | about ten-of- -the-clock For an hour the
 winds had whistled plaintively through | the cordage The sails were reefed or
 
 her mother sat watching the west chang 1 ing from dingy orange through powdery | blue tosa dusty slate, across which little | white wisps, like jets of cloud-spray, went | and came. Then for the first time Cap l tain Helstone addressed his passengers. | He touched his peaked cap with stiff | gesture and begged that they would go | below at once It was going to be a 1 coarse night" They were in bad wa | ters and might have to run for the open. | The matches would need to be closed. Immediately Mrs. Romer and her | daughter went below. Vida got her moth
 CT to bed before the storm caught them. | Then for 40 hours The Good Intent bat | tied with the winds and the waves of a | North Atlantic storm
 | She must have had excellent stuff in l her. that old tramp schooner, or she | would never have made so gallant fight | for It. At first, the two women heard the | din of trampling above them, the clatter- l ing of many feet. heavy sudden falls, the | creaking of blocks--all in addition to tine
 noises of the sea, which were deafening | enough to the unaccust6med. | Vida, i'll and dazed, found after a while troubled repose. Time and again, awak- | ing from her dose, she snatched a little | lantern she had taken from the super | cargo's room, and with infinite stagger- | ings, made her way to her mothers berth. always returning thankful that she was
 sleeping so soundly through the turmoil of the waters.
 But Vida was too dazed to notice that | the sounds on deck had died away, and that only the dull shock of heavy seas and the splash and tumble of breakers | plunping over the hulwa rl<s couId he