Year: 1871

mas more than once led me In 1.-THE season"
to Saratoga, Newport, Cape May, and
now desolate and deserted. yet famous
White Sulphurs" of Virginia. Those
who know me-and few, very few are
! those who know me as l am--know very
well that | am the happiest when, shut
out from the would, its frivolities, its dis
sipations, and its hypocracies, wander in
the wilderness OF my mountain home,
watching the wild deer in its gambals, the
trout sporting in the crystal waters, or the
eagle piercing the clouds far, far up the
mountain-tops.


But to my story.


1t was many summers ago when the
''sprt moved me" to make flying trip
to Cape May. 1t was in the height Of the
season when l reached the Cape, going by
steamer to Philadelphia. Every hotel was
crowded; the company was as various as
companies at watering places generally
are: bellies looking for mates, beaux on
the scent, any quantity of fortune hunters,
and few, very few really sensible men
and women in the vast crowd. The fair
sex was not represented, as thought, by
any ''killing beauties" / wandered in
at three or four of the evening chops" and
made up my mind that had seen as much
beauty in Mexican fandango. more in
dance on the green of an Andalusian vii
lage, and not less at backwoods dance,
where one fiddler formed the band, and
Virginia reel filled the dancing card "


| saw nothing, in fact, to drive away my
natural melancholy, and had made up my
mind to take one good swim in the surf of
Old Atlantic, and then on the next day to
start once more for my wildwood home
among the glorious old Adirondacks.


So | took my bathing suit from my
trunk, and when the sun began to drop to-
wards the pines in the west, sauntered
down to the beach, where hundreds were
already sporting in the surf-the shrill
laughter and pretty scream of the fair ones
making a fine contrast with the heavy
roar of the surf


For a few minutes hesitated to euter
the water, being more pleasantly engaged
in scanning the scene before me. barley
never had finer chance for sketching
from life than he would have had there.
A Hogarth would have only been too hap
py for the caricturean opportunities afford
ed him. For instance: A fat, beef-eating
citizen, carrying, at least, two hundred
weight of mortality in his own person,
went into the water, with wife on his
arm, whose lean and lank figure, taller
than his own, was too thin to cast shad-
ow on the white sand of the shelly beach.
And vice versa, very fat lady and man
as lean as Romeo's apothecary would be
seen-the one waddlng duck-fashion into
the water, the other "tethring" toward it
like a half-starved sandsnipe


Not a handsome woman in the water"
| muttered, as | gazed over and among
| the crowd. But at that moment, rs if to
rebuke me for my lack Of gallantry, Wis
ion passed me; she seemed too beautiful
to be anything but vision, which made
my spirit retract the thought in an instant ;
for the lady was beautiful, gloriously
beautiful One glance of her great, black,
all-bewildering eyes fell upon me as She
passed, and tat that blushed from my
head to my feet. She glided, she did not
seem to walk. SO close by me that her
snow white bathing-robes actually touched
me- and the contact threw an electric glow
through me in an instant. Tall, her fig
ure could, even in that ungainly garb, be
seen to be perfect complexion almost too
fair for the waves of jetty hair which hung
about her white brow and neck; and
look of melancholy upon her perfect fea-
lures. that made my but too susceptible |
heart ache to be her sympathetic conf |
dant, her comforter, if any such thing
could be-


With bitterness in my heart against the
man who could be privileged to wait upon
such an angel, | turned to see what heath
en- was attending the goddess of my hearts
sudden alteration.


There was no masculine present, no one
so near as myself. She entered the water
alone, not timidly or with shrinking step,
but like calmly proud Diana when no
Actaon was near.


Involuntarily l followed, though at u
respectful distance. | watched her every
motion, as she advanced farther and far
ther into the foamy ''yeast of waters"


Moving out until more than half her
queenly form was immersed in the briny
waves, she stood and gently bowed her
head to the great breakers, rs they rolled
in, in snowy wreaths, upon her. Oh, how
| wished that was one, Just one of those
breakers! Would not clasp that queenly
form in my chaste embrace, and bear it
away to some ''lonely isle of beauty" to
be mine, mine forever? Yes, would


But hoarse shout from the men, a cry
of warning, and a thousand screams from
rosy lips turning suddenly white, recalled
me from the wild dream which was taking
possession of me. My queenly vision
had gone farther than all the rest; SO had
|, when roller of at least thrice the usu-
al height came tumbling in upon US. In a
moment she was hidden from my view
the next second, was under hundred
tons of water, or SO it seemed.


Half strangled, butfeted my way to
the top of the water only to find that the
"under-tow had swept me outside the
surf, beyond the outermosr breaker, and
that the tide was bearing me seaward.


thought of my own danger. Where
was she ? At that instant saw her beau
titul face, within a few feet of me, Just
sinking; for she evidently could not swim,
as she made no effort to do so.


Heaven! what strength came to me then
Never did "strong swimmer in his agony
strike out more boldly than did then and
there. In an instant | was by lher side,
my hand supporting her and my voice
uttering these words:


Courage, do not despair. will save
you or die with your


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