The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-20
The EVENING STORY
A Young Lady Pirate.
lBy Donald Allen.l


IBy Donald Alien.l
A young lady sat under an apple
tree on the romantic shores of Smith
town Bay. Long Island. and wept. Then
she got up and stamped her foot and
scared away another goose that was
ogling her. Then she said she didn't
care snum, whatever that is. and she
threw a club at a robin and walked
up to the old-fashioned farm house
where a gray-haired woman sat in
the door Smelling peas.
We'll, you saw him?" Queried the
elderly woman.
Yes. and he don't know beans from
butterntilk! He advised me not to go
on the stage He said I'd better sit
around and get married. He said L
Il. Oh. he said lots of things, and
wanted to pull his hair, and came
away mad. He seemed to think I wasn't
common good looking. Granny. I'm just
desperate!''
"Pshaw, child. You just took a no.
ton that you wanted to be an actress,
and you went to see an actor at his
summer place and he discouraged you.
Your father wouldn't have let you go
on the stage, anyhow"
But ] was all dressed up, and the
actor hardly looked at me! Couldn't ne
have-have praised me just a little bit?
Would it have hurt him to say that
was good-looking? Couldn't he have
enough to say that I had good eyes
and hair? And. as for father, what does
he care for me? He has an old coal
mine somewhere, and he sends me up
here to you and grandpa while he's
away for weeks. I was to have gone
home a week ago, but he couldn't get
lack
But grandpa and I love you." soothed
the woman.
II don't care, I don't care! 1 can't
o n or oh, r frfC L.
what a success I'd be, and I'm not in
love, and I wish I'd fallen out of the
Cherry tree yesterday and broken my
neck! I'm going to put on my old
clothes and go rowing. and if squat
GENES up and The boat is upset you
neednH try to make anybody believe I
died happy.''
And a quarter of an hour later Mol
lie Lisle year under 20. and the
daughter of a speculator in the city,
was pulling out over the waters of the
bay and feeling herself u martyr. She
was a bit vain, and she knew it; she
was a good-looking girl, and she knew
that; she was not in love, but she was
waiting. She might have dismissed the
stage idea in week, even IL the actor
to whom she stated her case had not
been in gruf mood that day.
AS the girl got into the boat and
took up the oars, clammer who had
just landed and was older than her
sea and say:
eff 1 was a girl I'd be careful and
not row too far OUT
"But you don't happen to be a
girl" was the retort.
eff I was a girl" continued the
clammer, "and I was going out for a
row before supper, I'd take notice that
there'll be a fog on the bay within an
hour, and I would keep nigh shore.
All the clammers are coming in, and
- ~ he - o.
to be a fog"
Thanks. but I'm not afraid of a
little fog
Miss Mollie had been rowing for
four weeks and felt perfectly indie
pendent. She headed far out into the
bay. noticing as she did, that small
yacht had cometo anchor mile away,
and that a man was putting off from
her in a small boat. There was not
the slightest sign Of a fog-not that
calm. AS the girl took leisurely
strokes her feeling Of pettishness
gradually wore away and she found
herself humming an air.
An hour passed The shore she had
left was more than a mile away, and
the girl was looking at it. when it was
suddenly blotted out of sight She
turned just in time to see the
anchored yacht fade from view. Not
long afterward she was imprisoned in
do? To stand up in the skiff and
cry for help, of course! Who was to
hear her? How was any one to find
her in case she was heard? A voice
may come from any point Of the COM
pass in a fog, and the tide was drift
ing the boat all the time.
All Miss Mollie could do was to sit
down and cry and wish she, hadn't
teen a bit impudent to grandma, and
that she hadn't called the actor an
irk o,,I 40 CHI h Cd
to do something desperate. She had
also complained Of her father, who was
one of the best of men, and before she
get through being sorry she was sorry
she had been so short with the old
clammer.
When the sun went down and the |
fog thickened it was like blanket. To
sit still was wiser than to row. To be
repentant and sorry and conscience
stricken, and to promise to be real
good all the rest of her born days was
better than to utter screams which no
or e would hear For three hours the |
tide drifted the boat up the bay. Then
it turned and drifted it back.
Bump! Bump! Bump! The COVER
ing girl sprang up to find her craft |
rubbing sides with the anchored |
yacht The tide had done what the |
Oldest fisherman could not have ac-
a scramble and the castaway was |
aboard the larger craft, while the skiff |
was left to drift.
The first thing was to call out: ooh, |
say!' to see if any one was aboard. 1t |
was a small craft, with a tiny cabin !
forward. Miss Mollie went rummag-
ing. She opened the cabin doors, and |
after feeling about for ten minutes |
found matches and lighted a lamp. |
Courage came at once, and hunger |
with it. She found an oil stove. Then |
she found a few eatables She made
coffee. and she fried some potatoes and |
bacon, and after the meal she found |
herself so sleepy that she tumbled |
down on the cot and was dead to the |
world in three minutes.
1t was hours later that the girl |
awoke. Some one crying out had dis
turbed her. She crept on deck just as
a male voice called out: |
eve eYoiphf we'll ofvo M