Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-12-21
An Effective
Introduction
BY ESTHER VANDEVEER

Inc Jay was IOSSy, DuI SiuSS lhSAC
was nothing to do at the hotel he con-
Guided to walk on the beach. He could
not see the waves as they rolled i'll,
but be could hear them break and the
swishing sound as they slid up on the
sands. That at least was better than
lounging over a magazine or knocking
balls about on a billiard table.
For awhile he kept between the
dunes and the verge of the ocean. He
could see nothing a dozen feet before
him. but occasionally when a dune
lowered above him he caught a filmy
sight of 1t. At times he diyerged from
his line of direction toward the ocean
and could see the foam ready to encir-
Gle his feet. Aiming to keep midway
between the dunes and the foam, when
he got too neal the one he bent his
course toward the other.
Why did he continue to walk shut
off from everything save the sands be-
meath his feet? Why do we do any
thing we are not obliged to do? Why
will a man risk his life climbing a
cliff? Why will, n who has made a
fortune continue in the slavery of bust
ness? Why does the sailor imprison
himself in q ship when he has the
whole earth to wander on?
He didn't know. He had begun TO
saunter to avoid ennui. Put as he
proceeded he forgot those at h hotel
sitting about ~llstlessly with a bored
I'll -. %I,4;, fonno IIn WAN walking
in the mist because he wished to.
There was something he liked In being
thus shut off from the world he knew
to be about him but could not see. lie
had sympathized with blind persons
and wondered how they could be cheer
full. as many of them were. Now he
understood. But he could not give his
understanding in words.
Something dark doomed before him,
and In another moment a woman stood
facing him, a few feet from him. She
was young and pleasant to look upon.
There was a zest Ia this meeting,
though the person met was a stranger
to him. He might have met a girl.
many girls, time and again on a beach
when the whole panorama of nature
was spread out before him and not
one have attracted his attention. But
here out Of nothingness had sprung a
living being. 1t was like a child COM
ing from the unknown. One e not
consider anything remarkable in a
stone falling at his feet even if 1t
comes from a meteorite, but a living
human being suddenly entering Into
ais life-this was a wonder.
An introduction, essential under 9th
er circumstances, would have been in
congruous. Worthington forgot even
to raise his hat. The girl at first
started, then her features broke into
a quick, brief smile. Then sshe said:
strangely met"
Eyes. strange. But no stranger than
all other meetings. Every meeting Is
strange. 1t is all strange"
"WhatY"
Everything from-the universe down
to a grain of sand"
1.-The universe Is not so strange to
me as a single living being!'
He did not hear this; he was follow.
ing his own line of thought. Presently.
as If waking from a dream, he said:
Can it be possible that we are
strangers?"
1--WE are, yet it seems as If | had
known you always. 1t must be the un-
usual manner of our meeting"
st could not feel more companionable
If 1 had known you from childhood"
81 wonder" she said, ''should the
fog lift would we be as we would have
been had we met under the blue sky,
the ocean, the dunes and the sunlit
abodes of man about u.s."
1--WE would have passed each other
like two leaves sailing in the wind.
doubtless never to be so near again."
At that moment the fog vanished
from about them. The sun shone. the
blue sky arched above them, the
waves rejecting its hue. White comb
ed waves were chasing one another on
the glittering sand surface. while gulls
we're sailing aloft.
Wurthington turned from briefly
taking in the scene toward the girl,
smiled and raised his hat.
"We are again in the world" he
said, but we have got the start of the
world. Having met out of the world,
we have been Invested of its conyen-
tionalities. While thus shut off by
ourselves, untrammeled by its customs
and it's influences, we have become
companions. For my part | shall new
er relinquish what l have gained"
Her eyes dropped to the sands when
he said this, and she made no reply.
"How did you happen to be walking
on the beach in the fog?" he asked.
at was dull at the hotel. l could
not stand the chatter of the rocking
chair brigade"
"And the gossip. l admit a fog is
p~leasanter. One enjoys better the
sound of the waves. You are at the
Ocean House?'
81 am"