Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1925-12-02

assured us he was comforting him
self with the second chapter of Jude.
Water has a way Of getting into
our feed pipes, and putting one OF
the engines out of commission. Just
as we were rounding Owls Head
the surf breaking high against the
black cliffs, the little light above
looking so helpless port engine
coughed. If it had stopped, this
wouldn't have been written, for the
one engine couldn't have kept us on
our course; it was almost more than
both together could manage. But
they kept going, by the grace of God.
Eventually, after three hours of it,
we made the breakwater and calm
water | never knew before that one
could love a breakwater. This was
the storm of October 10. Our glass
fell to $3.50 before it turned. The
wind was from sixty to ninety miles,
we heard. We could believe it.
Properly speaking, this story really
began one morning last summer on
hotel piazza in Bar Harbor.
Someone said, "The Sunbeam is in"
and added that l ought to see her,
for she was the Seacoast Mission
boat and was out winter and summer
had been for twenty years, they
guessed. l went over to the dock
and found myself looking down onto
the roof of the pilot house. The
captain poked his head out of the
window and advised my seeing the
Rev. Orville J. Guptill, minister in
charge, who had just gone up town
to his house. (Bar Harbor is the
mission headquarters So | went
and the rest follows
Now, if the mission were in Green
land instead of on our own New Eng
land coast, we should probably have
known all about it years ago. If it
ministered to EsquimauX or Aztecs
instead of to native-born Yankees,
our emotions would long since have
been stirred in its behalf. But it
isn't really our fault, for the mission
hasn't been looking for publicity and
it hasn't been talking about itself,
having too much to do in other di-
rections. | simply had to sit up
and beg for a chance to write about
the work. It makes me blush now to
think of the lovely things / said
about myself by way of persuasive
argument Fortunately, Mr. Guptill
had been newspaper man before he
entered the ministry, and so he SYM
pathized with my interest in the
story. The final outcome was an in
vitation for the artist and myself to
go out on one of their trips and see
little something of the Sunbeam 5
parish first-hand. But, it was stipu-
lated, l must be mighty careful Of
what I said, for they didn't want any
body's feelings hurt. The islanders
were their friends and were not to be
exploited.
So, for a wonderful fortnight, we
two were privileged to share the life
and adventures of the missioners,
cruising with them up and down the
coast, stopping at remote islands and
remoter lighthouses, dashing through
the night with emergency cases for
the hospital, taking the duties and
dangers as they came and listening
to such tales as never were told be-
fore on land or sea.
Our field lay wholly outside any
known by the summer visitor. we
didn't bother with islands where cot
| tagers come, and on most of them
summer bOarderS were wholly UNI
| known we were as completely OF
the lanes of tourist travel as if we
had been in Etah. The experiences
of any one day would have made
book, and every other page of the
book would have been a picture. On
one island the artist demanded three
years if she was to do it justice, and
although | was taking in copy at
every pore, at night l hardly touched
| the material.
| A map of Maine shows two kinds
| of shore line, straightaway up to
Portland, then irregular and broken,
| with deep bays and inlets, projecting