Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-12-31

g.
restored him to equilibrium. Then she
thrust her sleeves above her elbows,
seized the oars and rowed the boat to
the pier.
After that adventure I felt pretty
sure the girl had conceived a real Xix
ing for John. OF course | hadn't the
remotest Idea why. | imagined that
after the boating incident the girl
would cease her efforts to make John
happy. She didn't, so l knew 1t was
no mere Irritation.
The more | saw of the Castle girl the
better | liked her. She was very YER
satile and correspondingly popular.
She played golf and tennis, rode a BIZ
cycle. understood sailing a yacht and
was quite ut home as a chauffeur.
Then. again. her stock of miscellaneous
information was truly wonderful.
Senator Blenkins was at the hotel that
summer. He is for tariff revision.
The girl discussed reciprocity and the
reduction of duties with him. She
said she thought the Dingley tariff act
the most ubiquitous piece of legislation
that had ever furnished a statute book.
After Blenkins went away Ex-Governor
Whitmyer ran down for a week. Whit
myer is a stand patter. So was the
Castle girl-that week. She said only
an enemy of his country would con-
slider lowering a duty on anything.
This shows what al adaptable, com
~panionable girl she was. She could
discuss any mans hobby intelligently.
whether 1t happened to be amateur
photography, postage stamps or golf.
Now, Johns hobby was military
bands. Before he moved to the city
he was solo cornetist in the Beaming-
ton brass band. He enjoyed an envia-
BILE reputation in that part of the state.
1t relieved his mind a great deal to In
dulge In "reminiscences of that de-
lightful period and to discuss bands in
general. Well, among other things, the
girl knew all about bands, and she
would spend an hour at a time dis
cussing with him the career of the
late P. s. Gilmore and the relative
merits OF Arbuckle and Jules Levy.
Once, l recollect, she was interrupted
In the midst of one of these converse
lions by a young lawyer who had heard
that she was omniscient and wanted to
know If she could state the rule in
Shelley's case. She could and did. She
said perhaps he would like to know
whether beasts taken levant and cou-
chant in withernam could be replevied.
He said he wouldn't trouble her for
that and went away.
Meantime Johns condition grew
steadily worse. He even fell into the
rhyming habit. and he would sit on
the hotel piazza long after sensible
people were in bed, dreaming of heroic
deeds. Although he did not say SO di-
rectly, l know from chance remarks he
made that he rather hoped the Castle
girl would go beyond her depth some
time while bathing SO that he could
save her life.
Toward the end of the h<st week
John and the girl CHANGED to be in the
surf at the same time. John is a
splendid swimmer. His style of swim
ming Is what youths in country places
call dog paddle.
When | first saw John that morning
he was swimming valiantly toward the
diving float. which is anchored a short
distance from shore. After he had
taken about a dozen strokes he became
tired. He tired quite easily. SO he
stopped swimming and stood on the
bottom. He had made a slight miscal-
culation as to the depth, and the wa
ter reached above his eyes. He began
to shout that he was drowning and
begged ~piteously for help. The Castle
girl heard him, and so did three or
four others. who started to aid him.
The Castle girl called them back. She
swan out to him and towed him into
shallow water.
John explained that there was a pc
culiar u~ndercurrent in that place which
just wound around a fellows legs like
a rope and held him fast. OF COURSE
even the most powerful swimmer
would succumb to 1t.
We were leaving Henslow on Satur-
day morning. Friday afternoon John
told me he had made up his mind to
propose to the Castle girl. He wanted
my advice as to the best style to adopt.
0oHle uOupl eAlSleL III LIS nluu us "
whether 1t would be wlsest to use
blunt brevity. metaphor or carefully
stated but plain md businesslike ar
gument. He also desired my opinion
as to the result. | advised In fovor of
the plain. common sense style.
In the evening John found an OPP
p%ortunity to unbosom himself. He
told her how domestic his tastes were.
how he longed to settle down, what his
salary was and how much the president
of his bank thought of him and ended
by asking her to take a matrimonial
chance with him.
The girl said 1t had eve occurred
to her that John thought of her in that
way. She said If she had so much as
suspected that he was travelling in that
direction she would have set a switch