Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-02

had voyaged to the Black Sea and heard the
women singing they trimmed wheat in the
holds with their wooden shoyels, and the trip
before he met Emma he had circled Africa
In some ways he was very wise He told Emma
he was %, because he was shy about his youth,
but actually he was 10 and had been at sea
five years. He was stocky and de-Shouldered
then, with eyes as blue and friendly as a Sum-
mer sky. His sandy hair seemed almost white
between the edge of his dark cap and the rich
brown of his smooth face He wore blue
jersey under his rough serge jacket and round
his waist fastened a wide black belt with
shiny buckle of brass. Strong he looked strong
and gay, and not five years of wide faring and
a contact with hidden things, not even the
liquor flush beneath his tan when he met
Emma could make him anything but boy.
Emma kept a little junk store in the dock
district with her aunt She was nearly IT at
this time thin, pallid-skinned girl with great
dark eyes and dark hair combed severity back
and tied with red bow. She wore a skirt of
black cloth reaching just below her knees, and
cheap white cotton blouses with short sleeves
that betrayed the pathetic boniness of her
arms. Ordinary enough she was Only her
eyes, and her lips with their strangely sweet
curve, saved her from utter mediocrity. Her
voice was reedy, somewhat uncertain at times
but bearing already hint of the richness and
depth that was to come to it. Perhaps it was
some dim feeling of her potential qualities that
made the young sailor, entering the store to
buy some knick-knack. remain to banter and
talk, to lean his elbows on the SCARED old
counter, cigarette smoking between his brown
fingers his flushed face turned eagerly to-
wards her, with the eyes dancing and blue and
bright beneath the level brows.
EAAAIA did not particularly like him at first
So many sailors tried to make love to her.
She was little terrified of them, but because
she alone with her aunt, and her aunt
spent her days In big wicker chair mumbling
to herself by the window that overlooked a
barrenness of brick wall, and was therefore
quite helpless and pathetic Emma conjured
from nowhere a quiet defiant brazeness to hold
between herself and the rough men from the
sea.
It was small encouragement the young sailor
had that first time when he stopped In the
store to banter with Emma. She answered him
shortly.
He shrugged, made wide gesture Of fare
well, laughed so that his teeth were a white
fash across his tan, and, Strengthening he
made for the door, all the arrogance Of youth
in his wide shoulders and the set of his head
He turned before he stepped into the street.
blew back kiss and then he was gone With
a little relieved sigh Emma hurried back to
her aunt, who was calling for something or
other. Emma was surprised several times that
day to discover she was thinking of bright and
friendly eyes, blue mirrors in rich provinces
She sighed little. He had been so young and
gay. 1t was pity, she decided with curt
little nod, that they had to start drinking like
the older men. Emma had lived all her life
in the dock district and had kept the store
for her aunt ever since she had been 10 and
left school. She was very wise. And she would
never marry sailor.
He appeared the next morning looking
rather shy. He bought some odds and ends
which he quite obviously had no use for, and
then tried to lean at ease on the counter and
hcV he bod I@aFa
him curiously for while and some of the
WEAKNESS went out of her eyes. After all, he
looked so clean and big and friendly. She be-
gan to talk with him, answer him at length
After while he sat on the counter and she
sat opposite him, not without some misgivings,
smiling TREMENDOUSLY and plucking at the cor
ner of her blue apron with quick, nervous I'm
gers. He kept his face averted for the most
part, watching his finger trace a pattern on the
SCARED wood, and she thought it would be nice
to stroke his hair. She was quite ashamed of
herself for that and almost blushed.
He returned every day after that, sometimes
came twice day, and they had long talks
always. They were both very young and the
hardness of life had touched them. Yet they
were eager for understanding for sympathy.
They were very lonely and life had seemed quite
without meaning or aim until they had met.
But now for Emma the grimy little store was
transformed and she no longer hated it. And
Tor him there was no longer pleasure in drink
ing with the men in the bars and bantering
with the hard-faced girls who hung around
the shipping Offices all of which had been the
only way he knew to pass the time between
ships.
= Emma told him Of her fathers death at sea,
Of her mothers second marriage to Dutchman
who had taken her abroad to live. Emma was
left with her aunt, whose husband had been
killed by falling cargo-hook years before, be-
queathing to her the little junk store out of
which she and Emma made some sort of a
lirsiFa bod kAua., To
few years. but she had never forgotten what
she had learned. And she had such ideas,