Evening star., 1912-01-07

Tom and Arclre-could never think to reap harvest
they hadn't sown? No. no. she couldn't bring herself
to say it! Poor they were but "honest and Godearng
she had brought them up And the three had
sailed together. They had no other home, in fact;
though Mother Carcy's craving had always been
for little house in Barnegat village and chicken yard
and guinea pigs,-"Cochin China or speckled Shang
hais for that kind lays the best Though Heaven knows
will the dream come true-with the boys joining the
Life or the Navy' Sail save, the choice of all
Barnegat beachmen though they might turn their
hands combing the beach the deep blue the
One thing sure: the Rollcking Lass her
last legs Last seasons strenuous storms took hundred
and thirty sail. sparng her. And Ships Bottom Station
closing till the next wreckng So far there
had been only bare living, at best. And the big
Barnegat fshpound stocked with fish as the
stocked with fngate guls!
MO wonder the @Mother Carey's chickens" made her
think of the boys, and their father, killed by the
Mystic of Cardiff, afre the reef; and the boys made
her think of the fat company pound-a standing 1nvi-
taton shake fortune by the ankles And that brought
Cascos warning to mind; for warning was1no doubt
about that! The very gulls screamed of trouble
"Thev do say the birds have letter on their wings
like the seventeen year ocusts o France. In all the
lake and seacoast department o twenty five hundred
men there's no better living; but I'm sorry Jem
Casco spokei'
A dull sound in the south brought her heart into
her throat 1t not the storm in the east though
that was brewing under reddening sky that gave
glare to the misty There were other signs of the
@chickens bringing storm They fought one another
down the mast like tnse toys. Mother Carey nodded,
putting back strand OF hair.
~'Twai them | saw Corposants! My nerves a-e
fair edge with incoming and thinking i'll of my
What is it now, Tommy? Fishhead:, ye rascal!~
The cat came from the cabin, scentng cooking He
sailor himself and he leaped the rail, arching
his backnot at the east but lnshore toward the thin
line of pound stakespoles and stripped treetops look
ing like the top of submerged hedge-a hedge stocked
with fish for the taking.
Looking for the lads are ye? l wish myself they'd
to dinner! Twill be growing dark soon, an
Mercy az
Sorrow alone excitement. brought the bur to
Mother Careys speech Till then she smothering
the fear in her heart the apprehension of evil The
boys not in sight wherever Archie and Tom had
melted into the mist with boat and nets there
sign of them. But something there far beyond
the last waving pound stake, something that carried
square OF white, almost invisible in the drifting sea
Smoke
"A raft or a boat, and there's something forby it,"
Mother Carey cried and hurried to the cabin for the
glass. The call of the sea- sensed by the cat even
reused her, dsrniSsng her fears; for it could not be
Tom and Archie. A hideous dull screaming as of a
million scagulls, appalled, her she stumbled up the
stairs "Mercy the sea- gone mad!' she gasped "'Tis
the sound of the storm riders overhead There'n be
trouble coming'
Little else than Of the sloop and the coast fishing
Mother Carey knew but all her instincts reused in the
presence OF peril on the deep The bevond the
hshpourd was torn up as by passing squall ripping
channel railroad train. She laid the bat
tered brass tube Cher husbands coastguard glass over
the hatch combing gazing long and steadily her mind
planning meanwhile.
@The dnghys astcrn-well, l minded Tom and
Archie to put it overheard before they went. 'Tis
raft it is, and 1.-TWO! And great hole torn
in the sail! Theyr mad the pair of them! And a
boat bottom up nearby Towing it, they belize,
when the squal struck them. No. no! It's never Tom
and Archiel"
make out; but the overturned boat seaward white
bottomed not the trawl boat of the Roicking Lass.