The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-06-24
IT Was the Hope Of Seeing the Lights.

1t Was the Hope of Seeing the Liuhts.
come true, she felt a curious sense of
disappointment. He had been so de-
liberate and sure.
Il guess you've known right along
now how l felt toward you, Susan"
he had said. "Pve brought the ring
with me and l don't think the boys
can make any fuss about 1t now. I've
got as much as any of you"
No, she thought, there would be no
fuss. There would be a quiet we'd
ding, and she would simply drive over
to the old Ames homestead and take
Dudley's mothers place there for the
rest of her life. And as she Thought
of it, somehow there came a swift
reaction, a vague, haunting longing for
all the dreams of her lonesome girl
days, when she had dreaded Dudley's
steady calls, and had hoped somebody
might come to the Bend and carry her
away from the everlasting sameness
of things.
you're in mighty good luck, Sue to
get man like Dud" Dave told her
at dinner that night. You're not as
young as you might be, and there isn't
girl on the Point who wouldn't be
proud to wear that ring on your
hand"
Susan turned the ring about
thoughtfully, looking at her other
brother. 1t had always seemed as If
Clayton understood her better than
Dave, yet he, too, smiled over at her
and suffered gently.
1t was raining after supper that
night, raining with light breeze blow
ing in off the water and all the gar
den lifting its burden of sweetness
to the moisture. She slipped long
cloak about her and went out softly,
down the back steps into the little
path that took the edge of the hill
above the shore. The tall spider lilies
caught at her thin dress as she pass
ed, and she stepped on wild roses
| growing low along the path, and the
pink bouncing betsies.
And, oddly enough, she knew that
she was deceiving herself. 1t was not
the beauty of the night calling her;
: it was the hope of seeing the lights
on Neil McCloud's schooner, down in
the little crooked channel that formed
the harbor of Kittery Bend. Neil was
a newcomer He had even trespassed
on that hill path up to the Rogers
place, not knowing that only the fam
lily ever took the short cut. And there
he had first found Susan, watching
alone from the little old pilot house
that served as a summer house, and
had come from her fathers first ship,
the Three Widows.
After that, every time he came to
the Bend he took the hill path, and
Susan watched for him, knowing In
her heart he was on forbidden ground
if the boys were to see him there.
Through Jimmie, the grocery boy, she
heard of how he stood in the village.
HE amt steady Going, Miss Rogers,
they say. Sorter wild. Spends all
his money soon as he gets it. Says
he wouldn't live on land for anything
He's been everywhere in that schoon-
er of his. Says he'd just as soon go
round the world in her as not. Amt
afraid Of nothing. Gee, / like to hear
him talk"
So perhaps Susan had woven ro'
nance about him because of his wan
dering tendencies. Nobody ever long
ed to travel away from the Bend and
the vistas of Plney Point as much as
herself
She saw the schooner's lights as
soon as she came near the edge OF
the hill. and even while she held her
breath, one hand close to her throat
she heard his voice singing as he came
up the path:
ooh, Billy was a bo'sun. bold and brave
William was gay. young sailor"
How tall and straight he was beside
Dudley's rotund figure, how the rain
dung in little diamonds of light to his
curly hair as he raised his cap to her
Susan lifted her chin higher, trying tC
keep back the telltale culver in hel
voice when he greeted her.
"Tm hearing news about you, Miss
Rogers" he said, with new ring In
his tone. After four months at sea
it's good to have news, and l wish you
all happiness"
"News travels fast, 1t seems" she
tried to speak lightly. Easter thar
the Rambler"