Annie Eliot Trumbull

“ He only gets round to looking out for you once in twenty-four hours; if you should get here sooner, it would put hitn all out of breath."
The heavy, short-winded man, who was not as quick on his feet as lie had been once, unresetitf ully pulled a banana off the bunch.
"Have another," he sang out, as the boat swung off. With the acquisitive- ness of the squirrel, the girl caught this one as she had the other, and tucked it under the seat of the boat, which wended its slow way with drooping sail to a taut little knockabout lying to starboard. ”

“ Araby did not reply to this reflection on her tacL She had grown thoughtful, and her father, recognizing with entire acquiescence that aged men, though in- finitely wise, were not always the chosen arbiters of the parting words of young men and maidens, withheld further em- phasis of reproof. ”

“ Araby laughed.
w You don't know Steve," she de- clared. "He never says anything a good many times."
Oh," said Carwood. He was re- garding her with attention and thinking that, as Agatha had said, she was very pretty. How rapidly from a tousled child she had become a piquant young woman i He smoked dreamily as he fancied the pretty idyl — the boy, his eyes and ears filled with the panoply of war, not ** saying much " bat expressive notwithstanding; his sweetheart, with eyes full of the tragedy of parting, the waiting boat rocking on the sunlit waves. ”

“ A man who looked like a painter's model sat on the edge of a cashiered dory and impartially watched them and some men who were bringing in fish, A sailor from one of the yachts, an alien, with an air of disinterestedness, was awaiting the ferry, not far off* Some girls who were sitting high up on the bank, almost over their heads, suddenly hushed their voices and laughter, and craned their heads over to hear what they were say- ing. ”

“ She was beautiful, charming, and adaptable, and, as he told himself more than once, he had no one
he must please but himself in this mat- ter of marrying.
" The Mildew sets in the harbor most all of the time now, don't she ? " re- marked Mr. Tippett one morning when the gray of the water was stashed with white and the boats rocked ominously.
" Yes, she 11 be getting barnacles on her keel if her skipper don't look out," jested Captain Apelby somewhat heavi-
"He's lookin' out," said Hanson briefly.
" It 's a kind of pity Steve is busy bayoneting them Dagos," ruminated Tip- pett. ”

“ It's go- ing to be a blow, father," she called out, almost in the same breath, to the old man at the tiller. He glanced at the sullen aspect of the heavens and the sea.
" It *s blowing now somewhere not far off," he assented.
" What I want ? " exclaimed Car- wood. ££ The question is what yon want or do not want."
"That isn't so mighty important," she answered imperturbably. Carwood turned up the collar of the cape she wore to protect her against the flying spray. His touch was a caress, but she did not flush under it; instead, she looked up into his face and laughed. ”

“ Inactive seamen sauntered down there for a glance out to sea ; lovers try a ted there in solemn fashion, wander- ing about in the gleaming sunshine, in the aimlessncss of absorption ; fisher- men came there to cast tentative lines off the rocks, and visitors, in pursuit of the picturesque. ”

“ He wants to get it quick," said Cap- tain Apelby, epigrammatic still, " on- less he wants somebody else to get Araby/*
I don't know as that would help/' said Mr. Tippett, blinking slowly his milder orbs.
" It "d bring him home," rejoined Han- son.
" There T s Kellaway now 1 ** exclaimed Captain Apelby, as the water boat with its clumsy lines and blue sail, careening riskily, went out toward the mouth of the harbor.
"The Irma's layin* way out, isn't she?" commented Tippett. "I guess she *s short of water. There *s Araby in the how." ”

“ The boys are all kinder crazy to go," suggested the business man of the com- munity. He kept the store around the corner, having late in life abandoned nau- tical for civic enterprises, on account of inherited responsibilities. ”

“ Yes, and want some water, cap," answered the young skipper. u Fish ? no/* he went on, turning to Araby again. " They did n*t really go to fish, you know. They talk and laugh too much to do anything else."
" Friends of yours from Boston, were n*t they ? " queried the girl, as she dropped the banana skin into the water.
" Yes, friends of mine," laughed the boy, " from Boston,"
"Did you take Steve along?" she asked, with a side glance at the silent figure in the stern- "Hold on, father," and she caught the gunwale of the other boat, as her father sheered off. ”

“ Well, we *ve got a sick man on board," said one of them, as he drew breath after a sturdy stroke.
"And haven't you any water at all ? ** asked Garwood.
" Yes/' answered the other oarsman, shamefacedly," we 've got water enough." ”