Hjalmar H. Boyesen

“ A spirit of enterprise and adventure invaded the young man's soul. Steadying himself with the lobster-spear, he stalked calmly out over the submerged part of the jetty, planting his feet firmly on the slippery, kelp-covered stones. The tide whirled and eddied about his knees—six or eight steps more and he stood waist-deep in the surging water. ”

“ In my opinion, the world could better afford to spare in its womankind the intellect of George Eliot than the health which such intellectual attainments would be apt to undermine. George Eliot, as you know, died childless; if all womankind died childless, but with towering intellects, civilization would expire with us, and we should all have lived in vain."
Mr. Nichols, who had been trolling a bluefish line, here gave a shout, which happily interrupted the discussion. He rose in the boat with visible excitement, and began to haul with all his might. ”

“ Anastasia was a trifle taken aback. She was not prepared for such sincerity. The thought occurred to her that Charity was crowing over her; or that perhaps she was deeper than anybody suspected.
"Now, dear, let us be perfectly frank with each other," she said; "there is nothing that I admire more than perfect sincerity. If there is one virtue I possess, it is that. You know, of course, it is of no consequence to me, one way or another, whether you have talked with Mr. Brooks." ”

“ The tide had, in the meanwhile, changed, and was running out at a high speed. The sun had set, and the wind was blowing a gale from the north. The spray beat over the stones every moment, and flew in hissing showers through the air. It was getting decidedly unpleasant, and Brooks determined to tempt fortune no longer, but betake himself back to the security of the solid earth and Mrs. Morgan's hostile piazza. He had just wound his line on the rod, and was about to turn his back on Boreas, when he discovered the figure of a solitary woman in a dory, some twenty feet beyond the end of the jetty. ”

“ Brooks was laboring under a difficulty which in all lands makes greatness more or less inconvenient. He was so conspicuous a figure in Poltucket that everything he did or said made something of a sensation. It seemed unchivalrous to him to expose the young girl who filled his thoughts to the cruel village gossip, unless he was irrevocably determined to ask her the fatal question. ”

“ She's sorter anchored here,—and a mighty good and seasonable gal she be."
"A seasonable girl!"
The Captain's mind, like a craft with a broken rudder, refused to change its tack in obedience to the wind. He could talk but he could not converse.
"She's sorter shy and skittish-like," he went on meditatively. "Ef she spies a man through the glass anywhar on the horizon, up flies her jib and mainsail, and away she skips and takes no 'count o' the weather."
That was an interesting piece of information to Brooks; the old man's guilelessness emboldened him to be more explicit. ”

“ He had all his life seen helpless women who took a pride in their uselessness and ignorance of practical concerns; and by contrast, an efficient woman who, without the sacrifice of her womanly character and charm, could sail a boat, braid a basket, and cook a beefsteak, struck him as a fascinating novelty. ”

“ I shall not attempt to describe Anastasia's feelings, when she found herself outplotted in this shameful manner. She had to display a cheerful mask, of course, but it cost her a considerable effort. The plan was, to spend the afternoon fishing, take supper on board and sail home by moonlight, returning about 10 or 11 o'clock in the evening. The wind was fair, and the boat shot ahead at a good speed. Charity sat bare-headed at the rudder, holding the tiller with a firm grasp, and with a cool professional glance (which Brooks found ravishing) watching the sail, the water, and the horizon. ”

“ Miss Anastasia was inclined to believe that she had now advanced far enough in the young man's favor to risk a change of programme. She knew that the moon had the reputation of stimulating the hidden springs of sentiment in the masculine heart, and determined to arrange a moonlight sail, in which Brooks and herself should be the principal participators. She broached her plan cautiously to the Rev. Mr. Nichols, who, without suspecting ulterior motives, went headlong into the trap. ”

“ He contrasted her deep and wholesome content with the intellectual contortions of Miss Herkomer, who skimmed with feverish restlessness over all the sciences, and was always uneasy lest she should not secure proper recognition for her attainments.
It is not improbable that Anastasia had a suspicion of what was going on in Brooks's mind; at all events, she was aware that she had displeased him by her question about "Theophrastus Such." She always felt an irrepressible irritation in the presence of men who undervalued the intellect of women ”

“ At last, when she had no alternative but to face him, she turned slowly about, and he saw that she was none other than Charity Howland, the vanished book-keeper. It was rather an unexpected denouement, and to him, with his European notions, rather an absurd one. He appeared to himself in anything but a heroic light. However, when fate plays a prank upon you, there is no use in rebelling. Brooks promptly smothered the snobbish feeling that threatened to assert itself; and determined to play knight-errant to the book-keeper with amiability and good grace.
"Can't you pull your anchor up?" ”

“ That distance lends enchantment, he held to be particularly true in the case of women; and more than half expecting, in his own case, to produce disenchantment by annihilating the distance. He discovered, by patient exploration of lanes and alleys, that Charity had found a refuge with an ancient retired mariner, named Captain Jewell. This worthy man, he ascertained, supported existence by making baskets, and had no objection to the visits of customers. Brooks found him a guileless old tar, crooked and gnarled, with lumps and knots in all sorts of wrong places. ”

“ The island of Poltucket is about as flat as a pancake. There is a saying there that, if your children go astray, you only have to stand up on a chair and look through an opera-glass; then you are sure to find them. To make assurance doubly sure, however, most of the houses in Poltucket are provided with a square platform or balcony on the roof, right around the chimney; and there you may see the aged sea-captains sit by the hour, sweeping the horizon with their telescopes. It may not be their children they are looking after ”

“ During the long eventless afternoons, this scandalous occurrence was vehemently debated on all the piazzas in the town, and a Brooks and an anti-Brooks party were soon distinguishable among Mrs. Morgan's boarders. The former consisted chiefly of Miss Anastasia Herkomer, a rather plain young lady from Vassar, who declared that she could see no reason why a man should not look at a girl as much as he liked, and step on her foot, too, if it amused him, provided he granted her the privilege to step on his in return. ”

“ He saw himself constantly in spirit doing all sorts of audacious things which in the body he never could hope to attain. That little, timorous girl with the sweet, demure face, who looked up at him with those large, trustful blue eyes, how could he afford to experiment with her fragile heart, and throw it away, in case it should not prove to be worth keeping? ”

“ The chances are that we shall hail some boat, as soon as the fog lifts; and then we can borrow matches."
They groped about in the twilight for a quarter of an hour, he keeping close in her track. The tide rose higher and higher, making the strip of sand upon which they walked narrower and narrower, and the surf roared along the outer reef with a deep and mighty voice. When they reached the point of land where they had put up the catboat, they began to halloo, but received no answer. Presently, they found the anchor and the rope attached to it. ”

“ It has sagged a little in places and is there overrun at high tide; but when the tide is below the flood-mark, it is dotted all over with bright-colored sun-umbrellas, under each of which will be found, on investigation, a young lady, a novel, and occasionally also a young man. In the latter case, it sometimes happens that the novel floats in to the town with the rising tide. Mortimer Brooks found this jetty attractive, not so much on account of the vacancies under the sun-umbrellas, as on account of the facilities it offered for fishing. ”

“ The young man, dripping wet as he was, stood leaning upon the lobster-spear, regarding her leisurely. The longer he looked, the more pleased he was.
"She is original, to say the least," he muttered; "she has delicacy of feeling, Charming face, too," he added musing, "and a good figure, though a trifle too slight." ”

“ He and she—the man and the woman, who loved each other—seemed to loom out of the fog as the only realities.
"Here is the Bateman cottage," said Charity, as an outline of denser obscurity became visible against the brighter mist which the moon pervaded.
"I fear they have all gone to bed," said Brooks; "there is not a light to be seen anywhere."
He walked about the house, knocking at doors and window-shutters, but received no response.
"The house is inhabited by the seven sleepers," he cried, as he rejoined Charity on the porch.
"I fear it is not inhabited at all," replied the girl ”

“ Brooks objected. "You might be blown off to sea, and nobody know what had become of you."
"The moon is just rising; and anyway I am not afraid."
She sprang forward and pulled up the anchor, while Brooks hoisted the sail and Nichols got his feet entangled in the rope and came near falling overboard. In another instant she was at the tiller, ran the boat neatly up along the sandy shore, let the sail "lay to," flung the anchor up on the beach, and herself jumped after it. ”

“ Charity replied; "the clergyman was afraid to have the sail up, and so, to let it down, he untied by mistake the anchor line, and they drifted off."
"They will be sure to capsize," cried Brooks; "they will be blown to sea or perish in the breakers."
"No; the tide is running in. It'll take them back to town; if they manage to get the sail down, nothing can happen to them." ”

“ Now look at that girl there. Charity, I think, is her name. She is book-keeper, secretary and what not to Mrs. Morgan, who, by the way, is not strong in arithmetic and chirography. Did you ever see a sweeter face than that girl has? How shy and demure and maidenly! Why, girls of that type, sir, when once the primness and the cool virginal reserve is conquered, make the loveliest wives and mothers in the world. They are the results of generations of—of——"
"Pork and beans," suggested Brooks; "and pie for breakfast." ”

“ Even a purse that was made up by the lady boarders who resented her dismissal failed to reach her through the Post Office, and it was on that occasion that Miss Anastasia scandalized the company on the piazza by recommending that it be intrusted to Mr. Brooks, who probably had a better knowledge of the topography of the island than the Postmaster. The Rev. Mr. Nichols, who kindly acted as agent-in-chief for the ladies' indignation committee, had, in the meanwhile, become possessed of some scraps of the girl's history, which he communicated with slight dramatic embellishments to the committee. ”

“ And yet, coupled with this, there were an admirable alertness of sense and practical skill which, to the young man who had spent his life among books and in the over-refinement of a foreign civilization, seemed wholly adorable. ”

“ A ship, if it be sound, calls half the population to their roofs; a wreck the whole. Charity Rowland was therefore perfectly in order when, the day after Brooks's visit, she was seen seated on the roof with her glass leveled toward some distant object. It was only Miss Herkomer, at Mrs. Morgan's, who found her action reprehensible; and that was probably because Miss Herkomer was herself, at that moment, engaged in marine observation. She had gotten Brooks in her focus, as he lay "scupping" in a boat out at the bell-buoy ”

“ From baskets the transition was easy to life in general, and the special problems and vexations which it presented in Poltucket. Captain Jewell had reduced these to a minimum, as his wants were few and Charity always looked out for him.
"Then you live on Charity?" ”