Smyrna times., 1917-12-26
My Secret
By WARNER MILLER

laughing girl who had never known
misfortune. We were fisher folk, and
sailors and lived under the canopy
of heaven; used to the breaking of the
waves on the beach, which at times
lulled US to slumber and at times !
merged with the roar of the tempest. |
1 was thirty years old then and |
when 1 saw Annie racing over the |
sands or climbing the dunes, her hair |
streaming behind her, in the wind, 1 |
felt then in comparison with her l !
was hundred. At any rate l knew
that to her l was an old man while to
me she was a child. The day would
soon come when some youngster would
carry her off and 1 left in a world
that would be dreary without her
But still she rOmped and pulled
about, when the water was calm, in
her boat, and with, bare feet ran on
the sand of a windy day like bird.
"Of tempest-loving kind
Thus beating up against the wind"
and no wOoer came. The only claim
l had on her was when she would
sit beside me on the end Of the dock
under which the waves were rolling
and l would tell her stories.
Then came a sailor lad still in his
teens and he and Annie came together
with a snap like two magnetized met
ais. How 1 envied that boy. He was
a handsome fellow, and in his sailor
tOgs, a unique costume unlike any
/ I no
ME should find a mate in him. An
MES father and 1 were chums, he
being but a few years older than 1
and one day he said to me:
"TOm, dye mind this young CrOcker
boy, maken up to my Annie?"
The devil tempted me to say he's
no good 'Twould be pity for Annie
to throw herself away on such as he.
If had said that Jim Clark would
have sent him away without Annie.
But 1 braced myself and said, Hes
a likely chap, and believe would go
aloft to furl sail in a hurricane as
quick as any man."
That settled it. The next day Ned
Crocker asked Clark for Annie's hand,
and got it.
l was menden nets on the sand in
the mornen when felt pair of arms
around my neck and turnin' saw An
MES happy face near to mine. She
had come to tell me that she was to
marry the sailor boy.
papa says you think well Of him"
she said, land papa will take your
opinion of anyone in preference to his
own"
I'm glad you're so happy, my dear,"
said, but the words chOked me.
Annie's happiness did not last long.
She married Crocker, but he sailed
away from her and never returned,
my words about him to her father
were proved. When his ship came in
we were told that in a hurricane he
went aloft to furl a sail, when no
other man dared go, and losing his
hold was blown overheard.
Annie mourned him but she had
youth on her side and though she was
, never the rOmp she had been was IN
time herself again. She turned to me
for comfort and sometimes l dared hope
that we might in time be something
more than friends, but a few years
= after CrOcker's taking off, she mar
: ried again, this time the mate Of {
ship that sailed between New YOrl
: and Japan. He wasn't the handsome
sailor lad Crocker was, and he didn'
sail with the wind. His ship was {
steamer.
Simmons, this was Annie's husband
u didn't live much longer than the first
5 He came home sick from his first vOy
9 age after their marriage, and thOugl
e Annie nursed him tenderly she cOuldn'
Z save him. He died in her arms ant
= we buried him In the little plot o
ground on the hillside, a mile bacl
from the village.
Is A big storm ragged on the coast. Sew
y eral miles out was q reef, coveret
y with water at high tide. In the after
noon a ship was seen to founder o.
y. the ledge and within a few minute
= she was broken to pieces. In tim
" wreckage and bodies began to come 4
and the beach was soon covered wit
~ both. We did what we could to tax
ie in and bury the dead, but night cam
u on before we could clean the beach.
q The next day went with sewers
>, others to hunt for bodies that ha
:, drifted northward. We found theI
= scattered along the beach and burie
them as we found them. 1 got sci
arated from the rest and came upO
aS aS the body Of a young man. 1 starte
le the moment 1 saw him for 1 recOi
- nized Ned Crocker.
- He was several yebrs older tina
.t =" when 1 had last seen him and ha
~ some beard on his face, but he we
= Crocker all the same. Before any {
- the others reached me 1 had carrie
'A him back to where there was cart
instead of sand and buried him.
ls' found out in time why Crocker we
M alive the day before 1 found the bod
'u He had found another mate and I'll
u. account of his death had been mac
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