The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1911-04-20

fleets. BaypOrt was COM
- munity of travellers. Every
ambitious man went to sea and even
tually. if be lived. became a 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 whatnots and parlor
mantels were filed with carved bits Of
ivory. gorgeous shells. alabaster can
dlesticks and plaster miniatures of the
leaning tower at Pisa or the Coli
scum at Rome. We usually began a
conversation with. when my husband
and were at Hongkong the last time"
or. II remember Mt 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 il, 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
that we have been defrauded. 1t was
the regret of Aunt Sophronia Hallett's
life that on her Washington excursion
she had not seen the diplomatic
corpse She saw the president and
the monument and congress and 1.-THE
relics in the Smithsonian institution"
but the corpse was not on view.
Aunt Sophronia never quite got over
the disappointment.
Probably no other Bayporter in re
cent years has started for Washing
ton on such short notice or with SO
iii defined program as Captain Cy. He
went because he felt that he must 60
somewhe 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 If
he saw her what should he say to
her? He could not tell her that she
must not visit the Cy Whitaker place
again. If 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
to compromise her life and her future
, by friendship with a social outcast
like himself. AS for anything deeper
and more sacred than friendship. that
was ridiculous. If for moment
remark of hers had led him to dream
Of such thing it was because he was,
as he had so often declared. an "old
fool"
So Captain Cy had resolved upon
flight. and he fed to Washington sbe-
/ cause the business Of the committee
| Sf oner 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 child's fight alone. If he
lost that fight, or when he lost it. 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
i Of ship and had few weeks shore
leave. Then he went there on a 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
J 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 a big modern build