The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-26
EVENING STORY
Pegs White Wings.
(By Silver Turner.)


| aye, sir, to the last orders aloft, Peg
gle was left alone with the sail shop
| on her hands. 1t stood downSon South
Water street, over ship chambers, d
good, airy, sunlit loft, filled with the
captains belongings and all the imp1e
ments and paraphernalia of his trade.
He had lived there for eighteen years,
ever since his retirement from the
| West Indies trade, ever since Peggie
| had been a baby.
And she loved the old loft. 1t had
1 been her shelter and playground for
years. She knew everything it con-
| tanned, and all of the captains Gus
toners. So it was quite natural, after
| the captains death, for her to keep
his name outside, and his trade within.
There was old Ben to act as first
mate, so to speak, and Mrs. Mac
| Gowan to look after the sewing of the
sails. Peggie was in charge of GUS
toners and accounts.
| Her favorite place was on the cap
tain's old stool over by the front win
dows at his tall wooden desk, where
she could watch the shipping along
the river front. There was the great
sweeping outline of the big bridge III
the distance. and Brooklyn's shore line
opposite. Below was the busy market
street. one side Of it water front, and
| the old bargeS anchored there, where
you could get sea food in abundance.
At night when the lights came out like
varicelored stars Peggie used to think
it was the loveliest spot in all New
York.
| Mrs. MACEDONIAN had kept the house
for the captain for years in the snug
little flat over the sail shop, so nat
urally. after he had gone away, she
stayed on. looking after Peggie. And
with Ben and his three assistants they
remained a contented household until
the coming of the Rowing Lou.
One morning after Ben had opened
| chi0nn1 wooden
outside the windows, and Mrs. Mac
| Gowan had started the whirr of her
sewing machine brisl<ly, Peggie, from
her point of vantage on the stool,
Hooked out and beheld a strange craft
anchored in the slip where usually
the sober looking James B. Gale lay
a lumber boat from Providence.
| This one was a three-master, with
! high deck lines, and her prov sticking
| inquisitively up in the air. She was
ocean-going, too, and weather beaten,
and she needed sails badly, Peggie's
business glance discovered at once.
Her general tone was gray, with
| touches of red and black on the cabin
and deck trimmings, and over her rails
there leaned one lone sailor, with a
pipe in his mouth, and a red stockinet
| cap on the back of his head.
Looks like a Portugee, don't he?
said Ben. She must have slipped in
| there by night. Never heard her name
before. Looks like she'd seen some
| weather.
Peggie could not have told why, but
the stranger had a fascination for her
She had grown to know the names of
| nearly all the customary callers along
that Water front, and this bird of pas
sage puzzled her. There was evidently
no cargo to unload, and no signs of ac-
tivity about her She had just drifted
in to look around, probably. And then
the door opened, and the master of
Pcf int
He was tall and young, and no Por-
tuguese, not with that rough blonde
hair, and the keen blue eyes that took
in everything, and fingered longest on
Peggie, even while he spoke to old
Ben.
II want some sails for her. he
nodded vaguely toward the Rowing
Lou out of the window. How long
will it take to get them?"
Ben got out his pencil, and figured
in his leiSurely way, while the strange
captain looked boldly and fixedly at
the slender figure on the high stool
Yet he might have been pardoned,
for Peggie that morning was a sight to
gladden. any ones sea-wea ried eyes
She wore a pink hambray apron over
her dark blue dress, and a band of
black velvet around her neck. And
her reddish brown hair was piled up
high on her small head, perhaps to
give her dignity, or to coUnteract the
ClISCI VI I1SI olIHpleS ana IrSCkloS-
He came often in the next few days
Ben liked him and so die Mrs. Mac
Gowan. He would sit up on one OF
the long wooden tables ard tell stor.
les of tie cruises of the Rowing Lou
that delighted them. She had sailed
the seven seas, now with one cargo
now with another, as it suited hel
master. She had carried pearls from
Ceylon TO the Netherlands the while
she was thought to bear tea. She
had jorrneyed with ginseng from
Frisco out to Hong Kong, and had
roamed back to pick up kola nuts and
| hemp from Manila. And all the time
he talked Peggie would listen, looking
out Of tie window at the Rowing Lou
and thinking how everlastingly tire
some it was watching just that little
patch of shipping and river front al
ones life.
Perhaps he talked too much around
the little back rooms behind the chan
dler shops and the eating places. Ber
said so. Anyway, there came a night
= when Peggie was wakened by shots
and when she looked out of her win
dow she saw that they came from the
lay at anchor. Ben was already down
the narrow stairs and on the street
pulling into a coat.
There were no police around. II
was the habit and custom of that sec.
; ton to attend to its own private af.
fairs without the aid OF the police az
much as possible. But out of the night
! there came one long yell and a dull
splash something went overheard
2 from the Rowing Lou. Peggie laid hel
head on the windowsili and Mrs. Mac.
Gowan. big and motherly in her white
. nightgswn. fondled her wisely.
That was never his cry she said