Flood Tide

n to Willie, Bob sent off to a Boston jeweler a registered package and while impa

ing as he was able. But now Zenas Henry's launch had suddenly become a glorified object, sacred to the relatives of the divinity of the workshop, and how and where the flotsam of the tides ensnared it was of colos

ns had risked their lives to bring the little one ashore; and how the Brewsters had taken her into their home and brought her up. It was a simple tale and simply told, but the heroism of the romance touched it with an epic quality that grippe

answerable for the crimes those hidden sand bars perpetrated, but nevertheless the fisherfolk could not quite shake themselves free of the shadow cast upon them by the tragedies ever occurring at their gateway. Too many of their people had gone down to the sea in ships never to return fo

she brought happiness. In time it got so that if you was to drop in where there was sickness or trouble an' spied a nosegay of flowers, you could be pretty sure Delight had been there. Why, Lyman Bearse's father, old Lyman, that's so crabbed with rhumatism that it's a cross to live under the same roof with him, will calm down gentle as a dove when Delight goes to read to him. As for Mis

ummage on a distant

to be. I told her there warn't no goin' to be about it; Delight was be

n, Mr. Spence," observed Robert Morton, who had bee

mes when to desert one's plain duty an' go huntin' a callin' is criminal. Queer how people will look ri

irred the shavin

ys, she says I let their troubles weigh on me more'n I'd ought. But to save my life I can't seem to help it. Don't

Morton

'd be surprised enough if you was to know the things I've been dragged into in my lifetime; family quarrels, will-makin's,

ping his thigh. "'Magine me up to my ears in a love affair! But I have been-scores

rity on the heart by this t

ng every time like as if you was navigatin' a new channel. Women may be all alike, take 'em in the main, but they're almighty

wood he had been planing to the

e'd buy some candy. We went into a store, I recollect, where there was all kinds spread out in trays, an' Dave an' me started to pick out what we'd have. As I stood there attemptin' to decide, I cou

his spectacles, wiped them, a

a wife. S'pose, for instance, I was pinned down to nothin' but caramels. The caramel is a good, square, sensible, dependable candy. You can see through the paper exactly what you're gettin'. There's nothin' concealed or lurkin' in a caramel. M

the half-closed blue eyes

ey held all sorts of surprises inside 'em, too. They was temptin'! But the minute you put your mind on it you knew they'd turn out sweet and s

es

meant to dress up the box. I called 'em brainless candies-just silly an' expensive, an' if you look around you'll find women can match 'em.

his companion's

athomin' it at sight. After you've got it you may be pleased to death with what's inside it an' then again you may not. So we settled mostly on caramels for Katie. I said to Dave comin' home it was lucky men warn't held down to one sort of candy like they are to one sort of wife, an' he most laughed his head off. Then he asked me wh

wonder you never picked out a wife for yourself,

ie, staring at the speaker open-e

y n

tle man na?vely. "It's taken 'bout all my time to get other folk

g figure, then shot abruptly to the doo

, J

-guard uniform

u, Willie?"

ply. "How are you an' S

as e

aid nothin'

fellow in the road sheepishl

not

f twenty years tryin' to tell Sarah Libbie Lewis he's in love with her. He knows it an' so does she, but somehow he just can't put the fact into wor

huckled at his

d y

enough for any self-respectin' woman to marry. An' furthermore, I said he needn't step foot over the sill of this shop 'till he'd took some action in the matter. That

d man

ed, an intonation of regret in his tone, "'cause Jack's mighty g

u cast him out?" Bob

e progress by now. But I ain't given up hope of him yet. He's been sorter quiet the last two

ll save for the

off some day," observed Bob a trifle self-cons

whole village-brave Zenas Henry, the three captains, an' Abbie Brewster, besides winnin' the girl herself. 'Twill be some contract. No, you can be mortal sure I shan't go meddlin

rt Willie stamped with