The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-12
EVENING STORY
Love of the Sea.
(By lola Forester

along the bluff, Ben advised strongly
against admitting any feminine influ-
ence into the quiet domicile.
You and me, cap'n, has lived on
and off here for ears between cruises
and we amt never felt the need of
women folks I can nurse you up
fine as anything, same as 1 did when
you was a slip of lad shipping with
me on the Lucy Lee
But there happened to be a city
doctor up at the summer hotel who
asked no permission. but wired to
Providence for a trained nurse Cap
tain Morris would be laid up for some
time, he said, and he needed the best
of attention. In fact, he was in luck
to have escaped the hospital and an
operation after getting his 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 hap
pened 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 damned in the ribs
of the Roger B. Dixon.
| Ben went down to the harbor to
meet the Providence boat with surly
l
the doctor was there also, and Ben
stood to one side watching him greet
tall young woman in gray.
This is Miss Vail, Ben.''. he said
! ~ GU take her right on up to the cap
| tain's cottage and I'll be along soon.
How is he this morning? Resting
easy?"
| o Easy as a tommycod out of water"
growled Ben. But 1 misdoubt as he'll
| find any rest now
The doctors eyes twinkled as he
| left them. Ben was quite as much of
| a patient in his way as the captain
| but he felt that Katherine Vail could
manage them both. Her optimism
would override Ben's most caustic re-
! marks, and her presence was just
what Walt Morris needed to give him
a new interest in life. The doctor
| had liked the young captain during
their friendship of two seasons at the
| island Morris owned four lumber
boats and could well afford to keep
out of the business himself excepting
| on shore, but the sea was in his sys-
tenn and in the spring. when the lum-
| Der 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,l and had
grown to understand the fine wide
horizoned outlook of the captain.
partly from the 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
| little wing-like cap on her blonde
hair The sea air had brought an I'M
usual tinge of color to her face She
| stopped with a little exclamation of
| pleasure to pick p newly blossomed
crocus from the edge of the garden
path.
It's such dear place to live I've
| a sun ri,
came, and the air is wonderful"
| How do you like the patient?"
The doctors eyes were quizzical.
Hes not talked very much yet
! But old Ben makes up for it in all he
has to say, warning me off their bach
| elor rights. I'll win him over, tho.
| He's good cook. He had broiled
fresh Holsters for supper last night
and baked mackerel today. 1 think
he's trying to show me how indie
pendent 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. Norris
was drowned, and Ben was his mate
Ben's had four wives, some buried
and some not, and romance is a 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 most now is a 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 medicine l know off,
| Katherine shook her head laughing
~, The doctor had been one of her
fathers closest friends She had
looked forward to his visits all thru
her girlhood. and later, when she was
alone. it had been his unfailing en-
enlargement that had led her to take
up her nursing course and follow 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 a 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"
1t was the first flash of interest the
captain showed when she told him she
had been born at sea. Even old Ben
eyed her with concern, as if he rather,
suspected her of having made it UP to
get her patient interested in her
/ Walt grew much better. Finally
one day they put his chair out in the
garden during the noon hour. The
doctor had just left him after a most
encouraging word to Katherine
You can figure on leaving about
the first of the month"; he said. He's
| in fine shape"
| Walt heard him, and his eyes dwelt
on the figure in white as it passed
back and forth from the house to the
garden. Ben was down on the docks
doing the daily marketing Spring
was coming over the island in full
| beauty all at once. The breeze from
the sea held a keen, sweet tang of
salt. He began to feel his heart
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