The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-27
Sheldon opened Joan's letter:

Sheldon opened loans letter:
 Dear MT. Sheldon-Please forgive me for stealing the Flibberty Gibbet. 1 simply had to. The Martha means everything to us. Think of 1t, only f55 for her, S975. If don't save her. know shall be able to pay all expenses out Of her gear which the natives will not have carried off. And if l do save her it Is the haul of a itfe- time. And if don't save her I'll fill the Emily and the Flibberty Gibbet with re- cruits. Recruits are needed right now on Berande more than anything else.
 And please. please don't be angry with me. You said shouldn't go recruiting on the Flibberty. and 1 won't. I'll go on the Emily.
 bought two cows this afternoon. That trader at Nogi died of fever, and bought them from his partner-Sam Willis his name-who agrees to deliver them. most fkely by the Minerva next time she is aown that way. Berande has been long enough on timed milk.
 And Dr. Welshmere has agreed to get me some orange and lime trees from the mission station at Uava. He will deliver them the next trip of the Apostle. If the Sydney steamer arrives before get back plant the sweet corn she will bring be- tween the young trees on the high bank of the Balesuna. The current Is eating in against that bank. and you should do something to save it.
 have ordered some fig trees and To- quats. too. from Sydney. Dr. Welshmere will bring some mango seeds. They are big trees and require plenty of room.
 The Martha is registered no tons. She is the biggest schooner in the Solomons and the best l saw>a little of her lines and guess the rest. She will sail like a witch. If she hasn't filled with water her engine will be all right. The reason she went ashore was because it was not working. The engineer had disconnected the feed pipes to clean out the rust. Poor business unless at anchor or with plenty of sea room.
 Plant all the trees in the compound even if you have to- clean out the palms later on.
 And don't plant the sweet corn all at once. Let a few days elapse between plantfngs. JOAN LACKLAND.
 He fingered the letter. lingering over it and scrutinizing the writing in a way that was not his wont. How characteristic, was his thought, as be studied the boyish scrawl-clear to read. painfully clear, but none the less boyish.
 He looked long at the name. Joan Lackland-just an assemblage of let ters, of commonplace letters, but an assemblage that generated a subtle heady magic. It crept into his brain and twined and twisted his mental processes until all that constituted him at that moment went out in love to that scrawled signature. Joan Lack land! Each time he looked at 1t there arose visions of her in a myriad moods and guises. coming in out of the flying smother of the gale that had wrecked her schooner. launching a whaleboat to go a.fishing. running dripping from the sea with streaming hair and cling ing garments to the fresh water show CT, frightening fourscore cannibals with an empty chlorodyne bottle. ju- venilely rattling on about romance flushed and eager with enthusiasm, Joan LackIand. He unused over the cryptic wonder of 1t till the secrets of love were made clear and he felt a keen sympathy for lovers who carved their names on trees or wrote them on the beach sands of the sea.
 Then he came back to reality, and his face hardened. Even then she was on the wild coast of Malaita and at Poonga- Poonga. of all yillainous and dangerous portions the worst. peo pied with a teeming population of head hunters. robbers and murderers For the instant he entertained the rash thought of calling his boats crew and starting immediately in whaleboat for Poonga Poonga. But the next in- stant the idea was dismissed. What could he do if he did go? First she would resent it. Next she would laugh at him and call him silly.
 There was much in her willful con- duct that caused him to vince In the heart of him. He was appalled, by the thought of her shouIdersto shout der with the drunken rabble of trad CTS and beach combers at Guvutu. It was bad enough for clean. fastidious man. but for a young woman. girl at that, 1t was awful. The theft of the Flibberty Gibbet was merely amusing, though the means by which the theft had been effected gave him hurt. Yet he found consolation in the fact that the task of making Oleson drunk had  been turned over to the three scoun- drels. And next and swiftly came the vision of her. alone with those same three scoundrels, on the Emily, sailing out to sea from Guvutu in the twilight with darkness coming on. Then came visions of Adamu Adam and Noa Noah and all her brawny Tahitian following. and his anxiety faded away. being re- placed by irritation that she should have been capable of such wildnees of conduct. And the irritation was still on him as he got up and went inside to stare at the hook on the wall and to wish that her Stetson hat and revolver belt were hanging from it.
 Gro Be Continued.)