Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-05-11


fleets. Bayport was COM
S--~J munity of travellers. Every
ambitious man went to sea and even
tually. II he lived, became captain.
Then he took his wife and. in most
cases. his children with him on long
voyages TO the stay at homes came
letters with odd foreign stamps and
postmarks. Our whutnots and parlor
mantels were filed with carved bits Of
Ivory, gorgeous shells, alabaster can
tilesticks and plaster miniatures of the
leaniug tower at Pisa or the Coli
scum at Rome. We usually began
conversation with, when my husband
and l were at Hongkong the last time"
or, II remember at Mauritius they
always"- New orleans and Frisco
were the nearest domestic ports the
mention of which was considered
worth while.
But this is so no longer. A trip to
Boston Is, of course, no novelty to the
most of us. but when we visit New
York we take care to advertise it be-
forehand And the few who avail
themselves Of the spring "cut rates"
and go on excursions to Washington
plan definite programmes for each day
at the capital and discuss them with
envious friends for weeks In advance
And If the prearranged program Is
not scrupulously carried out we feel
Mat we have been defrauded. 1t was
.he regret of Aunt Sophronia Hallett's
Me that on her Washington excursion
The had not seen the diplomatic
.orpse" She saw the president and
The monument and congress and "the
yelics in the Smithsonian institution"
but the corpse" was not on view.
AUNT Sophronia never quite got over
he disappointment.
Probably no other Bayporter in re
vent years has started for Washing
on on such short notice or with so
81 defined progra m as Captain Cy He
vent because be felt that he must go
somewhere. After the conversation
with Asaph he simply could not re-
main at home. If Phoebe Dawes called
he knew that he must see her, and II
he saw her what should he say to
her? He could not tell her that she
must not visit the Cy Whitaker place
again II he did she would insist
upon the reason. If he told her Of the
"town talk" he felt sure. knowing her,
that she would Indignantly refuse to
heed the malicious gossip. And he
was firmly resolved not to permit her
10 compromise her life and her future
by friendship with social outcast
ike himself. AS for anything deeper
and more sacred than friendship, that
was ridiculous. If for a moment a
remark of hers had led him to drea m
of such thing it was because he was,
as he had so often declared, an "old
fool"
So Captain Cy had resolved upon
fight, and he fed to Washington be-
cause the business Of the committee
Of one" offered legitimate excuse for
going there. The blunt message he
had intrusted to Georgianna would. he
believed arouse Phoebe's Indignation
She would not call again. And when
he returned to BoS'n it would be to
take up the chid's fight alone If he
lost that fight or when he lost 1t, he
would close the Cy Whitaker place
and leave Bayport for good.
He had been in Washington once be-
fore, years ago, when he was first mate
of a ship and had few weeks shore
leave. Then he went there on pleas
ure trip With some seagoing friends
and had Jolly time. But there was
precious little jollity in the present
visit He had never felt so thoroughly
miserable. In order to forget he made
up his mind to work his hardest to dis
cover why the harbor appropriation
was not to be given to Bayport
The city had changed greatly. He
would scarcely have known it. He
went to the hotel where he had stayed
before and found big modern build
ing in its place. The clerk was In
clined to be rather curt and perfume
tory at first, but when he learned that
the captain was not anxious concern
ing the price Of accommodations, but
merely wanted "comf table berth
somewheres on the saloon deck" and
appeared to have plenty of money he
grew polite. Captain Cy was shown
50 his room. where he left his valise.
Then he went down to dinner
After the meal was over he seated
himself in one of the big leather chairs
In the hotel lobby, smoked and
thought. In the summer, before Bos'n
came and before her father had arisen
to upset every calculation and wreck
all his plans, the captain had given
serious thought to what he should do
If Congressman Atkins failed, as even
then he seemed likely to do, In secur-
ing that appropriation. The obvious
thing Of course, would have been to
hunt up Mr. Atkins and question him.
But this was altogether too obvious
In the first place the strained relations
between them would make the inter
view uncomfortable, and in the second
If there was anything underhand in
Hemans backsliding on the appropria.
ton AlRlns was too wary bird to be
SHARED with questions.
But Captain Cy had another &C.
quaintance in the city. the son Of q
still older acquaintance, who had been
wealthy shipping merchant and mine
owner In California. The son was also
congressman from a coast state, and
the captain had read Of hun in the pa.
pers. A sketch Of his life had been