Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-04-17
Euening Story
LOVE OF THE SEA.
BY lzola Forester.
Copyright, 1917 by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.)

! Copyright, 1917 by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.)
! When the captain met with his acct
dent and they bore him up to the little
red cottage on the main street along
the bluff. Ben advised strongly against
admitting any feminine influence into
the quiet domicile.
You and me. cap'n has lived on and
| off here for years between cruises and
we amt never felt the need Of women
folks. l. can nurse you up fine as any
thing. same as did when you was a
slip Of lad shipping with me on the
Lucy Lee
But there happened to be city doc
| tor up at the summer hotel who asked
no permission, but wired to Providence
! for trained nurse. Capt Morris
| would be laid up for some time, he said
and he needed the best of attention. In
i fact, he was in luck to have escaped
the hospital and an operation after get
! ting hts ship rammed by a sound
steamer. Her bow had stove in the
whole side OF the lumber boat, making
her way slowly down from Maine 1t
had happened about a. m. with Ben
on watch and the captain asleep. Part
Of Ben's deep contrition lay in the fact
that half foot more and the captain
would have been crushed to death
when the big boat TANNED in the ribs
of the Roger B. Dixon.
Ben went down to the harbor to meet
the Providence boat with surly coun.
tenance and heavy heart But the
doctor was there also and Ben stood to
one side watching him greet tail
young women In gray.
This Is Miss Vail, Ben he said,
"You take her right on up to the cap
tain's cottage and III be along soon
How Is he this morning? Resting
easy?'
Easy as a tommycod out Of water"
growled Ben. But misdoubt as he'll
find any rest now"
The doctors eyes twinkled as he left
them. Ben was quite as much Of pa
tent in his way as the captain, but he
felt that Katherine Vail could manage
them both. Her optimism would over
ride Ben's most caustic remarks and
her presence was Just what Wait Nor
ris needed to give him new interest in
life. The doctor had liked the young
captain during their friendship Of two
four lumber boats and could well afford
to keep out Of the business himself ex-
cepting on the shore, but the sea was
in his system and In the spring, when
the lumber trade opened up, he liked
to sail the Dixon himself.
Often the doctor had taken the trip
with him up the New England coast to
the big Maine ports, and had grown to
understand the fine. wide horizoned out
look of the captain, partly from
books that lined his cabin, partly from
their talks.
The third day after Katherine's ar
rival he was talking with her at the
gate. Very trim and interesting she
looked in her white linen dress and lit
tie wing like cap on her blonde hair.
The sea air had brought an unusual
tinge Of color to her face She stopped
with little exclamation OF pleasure to
pick newly blossomed crocus from
the edge Of the garden path.
ITS such dear place to live. I've
seen the sun rise every morning since
came, and the air Is wonderful
How do you like the patient?' The
doctors eyes were quizzical.
He's not talked very much yet. But
old Ben makes up for it in all he has
to say warning me off their bachelor
rights. I'll win him over, though He's
a good cook He had broiled fresh lob.
sters for supper last night and baked
mackerel today. ! think he's trying to
show me how independent they are OF
women"
The doctor smiled and ran the edge
Of his roughly cut walking stick along
the garden palings.
That's one of your duties to teach
them that women are Indispensable.
Walt has been brought up under Ben's
tutelage. His father old Capt. Morris
was drowned, and Ben was his mate.
Ben's had four wives, some buried and
some not and romance is dead issue
with him. He has filled Waits mind up
with warnings against the elusive sex
ever since he could walk and what he
needs now is new interest In life.
He's been badly hurt. 1t will take
weeks of good nursing to put him on
his feet and heal those ribs SO. I'm
lending you to him" He smiled at her
whimsically. You're the best med!
cine know Of
Katherine shook her head laughingly
The doctor had been one of her fathers
closest friends. She had looked for
ward to his visits all through her girl
hood and later, when she was alone. it
had been his unfailing encouragement
that had led her to take up her nursing
course and follw it.
But this trip to the island reused in
her a new self They were fifteen
miles out at sea from the Rhode Island
coast. 1t was the first time she had
experienced such sense of freedom,
And she remembered all her father
had told her. long ago, OF the island
bred girl he had loved and wooed off
the coast Of Scotland.
You're like her, kathie," he would
say. But. oh, how she loved the sea-
1t should be in your heart too. for You
were born on the trip across and we
had to leave her to the waves she
loved
It was the first flash OF interest the
captain showed when she told him she
had been born at sea. Even old Ben