Lischen M. Miller

“ It would be an easy matter to pull out and back before there should be any change in the weather. Six of the best oarsmen in the place, therefore, set off on the last of the tide in the gray dawn. They pulled a steady stroke, and the swiftly ebbing tide seemed to fairly shoot them along and out across the bar. When well outside they turned southward, and those watching from the shore could note the small boat rise and fall with the swell of the sea. ”

“ Wonder why Colton don't brace her up with his tonics and stuff, and get her out again. It's deucedly dull without her."
The hour had grown late. None of us realized that it was after midnight till McArthurs came in. He looked pale and disturbed.
"What's up, Mac? You look as if you had just come from an interview with a ghost?" cried Fisk.
"I met Colton outside. He was on his way home from Dana's house. Mrs. Dana died this evening," and McArthurs turned and left us before we had recovered from the shock of this sad news sufficiently to put a single question. ”

“ They were married quietly and went abroad for a year. "She'll be sick enough of his 'genius' by the time they get home," Fisk predicted. But presently rumors began to reach us concerning the remarkable success of an American artist in Rome. Then it was Paris, and the rumor took a more definite form, and came to read, "Dana, the American," who was agitating art circles in the Old World by reason of his wonderful paintings, which were said to rival in power and originality of conception the best works of the old masters. ”

“ Fisk regarded him meditatively. "Who sat for the mother in that picture?" he asked, and everybody save McArtnurs smiled. McArthurs pretended not to hear. Fisk went on.
"His wife was right after all. Love is not always blind, it seems. Eh, Colton? Discerning the latent spark with the eye of true affection, she has fanned it to a flame."
In the course of time the young couple returned to us, and Augustus set up a studio in the elegant little place they took possession of on B— street.
If Mrs. Dana had been charming as Miss Sargent, she was irresistible now. ”

“ Well, as I said, we had our cabins up and fairly habitable, and as winter was coming on, and it was unnecessary for us all to remain here, Harold decided to return to San Francisco to look after our interests there till spring. A vessel had come in to carry out the season's results in salmon, and it seemed a good chance for Harold to return home without the difficulties and delays incident to the journey overland. Besides, the master of the Mist was short of men and offered him a berth, which in itself was an inducement, for our funds were running low. ”

“ He could draw with all the skill and correctness of an Andrea Delsarto, and he had a sort of gift for mixing colors. But he had no originality, and was absolutely ignorant of the first principles of art. His work was utterly lifeless and as correctly dull as himself. ”

“ The weather was fine, the bar as smooth as I have ever seen it. The Mist was to sail in the morning at floodtide, which would occur about 10 o'clock. Harold was on board, and late in the afternoon Fred took a small boat and pulled out to the ship where she lay anchored in the bend of the river just opposite the cannery. He meant to spend the night on board and take leave of his brother in the morning. "As I came down the coast and climbed the hills above the cannery in the red glow of the setting sun, I saw my brave boys leaning over the ship's rail, and waved my hand to them. ”

“ In those days travelers did not often come that way, for there was no road, only a narrow trail winding in and out among the hills and along the brow of the beetling cliff. The nearest human habitation was a good 10 miles away to the south. ”

“ I'm not given to rhap- sodizing, as you perhaps know, and I don't go in for art as a rule, but his picture of the young mother dreaming of her child's future while she rocks the cradle is a thing I cannot get out of my mind. ”