Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-06-17

compliance with their own petty rules,
their hearts protesting.
Long before the earthquake they
had erected on the topmost hill of the
island a huge pile of dead wood from
the groves beneath.
When they had parted she had sug-
gesteC to him-and it was significant
that now 1t was a suggestion; yeSter-
day 1t would have been a command
hat he should take time to ascend the
hill and rearrange the great heap Of
wood which they had builded. During
all the time that had elapsed since she
had been there no sail had whitened
the horizon, no curl of smoke had be-
tokened the distant passing of a
steamer. But no spot of the globe
could forever renal unvisited, she
thought, and some day that pile Of
wood might make a beacon light to
call civilization to them. He was glad
to comply with her suggestion, glad
for occupation, and SO he promised
and went his way.
When he had disappeared, she
turned the edge Of h cliff in the Sc
Guided a~mphitheater where her ave
fronted the ocean She threw aside
her tunic of woven grass and plunged
into the cool, delightful pool, which
fortunately the earthquake had not
disturbed. Her clothes, the scanty
garments she had ~improvised from her
underclothing, had long since worn
out. 1t had not been difficult, how
ever, to plat of certain pliable rushes
which grew in plenty POI h island,
the loose and shapeless garments they
both wore. She had used strips torn
from what had remained of her cloth
ing for binding and edging and prac-
tice had made her dextrOus n skill
full in the rude weaving. She still
preserved, however, the blouse and
skirt of serge, her only pair of stock
ings and the Canva boating shoes.
Sometimes in idle moments h tried
those shoes on. Fortunately for her,
they were loose and easy. Going bare
foot three years had enlarged her
small n slender feet to something
like those human and proper proper
tions which, from the standpoint of
nature at least, had greatly enhanced
their beauty. She kept these clothes,
she hardly knew why, perhaps for one
ISdoOu Oll1CC SAC q bCCA oO4C "
a the waited garment so we'll
suited to her needs she had had no
use for them; perhaps against the day
Of the arrival of other civilization
than her own.
Greatly refreshed by her bath-and
it shows her absolute confidence in
him and his worth hat interruption
never occurred to her; it had
come and therefore it never would
she resumed her tunic and walked
toward the cave. The tide was very
low. The sands terminated on one
side IN a rocky ledge where a long
arm of the lagoon ran to the foot of
the cliff. The cliff had been tremen-
dously shaken, apparently, and h no
ticed just above the water line a mar
row opening. She had thought from
noises during storms that there was
a hidden W. in the cliff with an
opening under the water. She had
imagined that possibly she could enter
it by diving, but she had never cared
to make the attempt, although by this
time she had become as much at home
in the water or under it as If she had
been a native of the south seas. Some
times in the morning they swan in
the lagoon together, oftentimes she
swan alone. 1t was a great pleasure
to her and a necessity as we'll in that
low latitude.
Curiosity induced her to inspect
/ more closely this opening near the
waters edge. Again throwing aside
her garment, she plunged into the arm
of the sea and wan boldly toward
the cliff. There was just room enough
between the waters level and the top
Of the opening for her head. She
found herself in a straight passage
way perhaps eight or 10 feet long and
as many wide. Cautiously she swan
through it and discovered herself in
an immense cave. Light filtered
through the opening and one or two
assures had been opened here and
there, by the earthquake or by some
convulsion of nature before, through
the rocky wall, invisible on the face of
the cliff from the outside but quite
distinct within. There was even a
stretch of sandy beach on one side.
She swan to it, clambered upon it
and sat down to rest.
Here was an excellent haven of ref
uge, instinctively occurred to her, al
though a refuge from what she
scarcely knew. Except at the very
lowest of the ebb the entrance would
be covered, n ever then it would
take a curious and familiar eye to dis
cover the entrance or to imagine it
anything more than a deep rift in the
face of the sea wall. At any other
hour the entrance would be invisible,
and even at low tide if the wind blew
from the sea which it generally did,
the breaking waves would cover the
entrance completely. on to one side,
quite accessible from the sand strip,
which rose sufficiently high to afford