Mary Roberts Rinehart

“ Tish demanded tartly. “At least they cover me, which is more than I can say of some of your clothes.”
“But they're not—not feminine,” said Lily May, and Tish stared at her.
“Feminine!” she said. “The outdoors is not a matter of sex. Thank God, the sea is sexless; so are the rocks and trees.”
“But the people——”
“There will be no people,” said Tish with an air of finality.
The next few days were busy ones. Tish had immediately, on learning that the New England coast has several varieties of fish, decided that we could combine change and isolation with fishing for the market. ”

“ The first man was the captain, and while Aggie made us some fresh tea in the galley Tish confided to him our real purpose, and showed him her badge.
He seemed greatly impressed, and said, “If more people would see their duty and do it, we would get rid of the rum evil.”
He then said that they were also a part of the revenue fleet, or had been. He didn't know how long they could stick it out.
“I'm all right,” he said. “But now you take Joe and Bill, there. They're not normal any more; it's the loneliness gets them. Nothing to do but wait, you see.” ”

“ I said. “Our poor Aggie!”
“Aggie is all right,” she said impatiently. “At least she doesn't have to get anywhere. We do.”
We decided at last until the fog lifted to save our gasoline, in case we had to get out of the way of some vessel; and Tish—who can knit quite well in the dark—got out her work. But Lily May seemed to have recovered, and was acting very strangely.
For instance, she roused once from deep thought to suggest that we throw the boxes of fish overboard, and she seemed quite worried when Tish refused.
“Why should I?” Tish said. “They represent money and effort. ”

“ I cannot recall this situation without a pang, for our dear Tish never gambles, and is averse to all games of chance. Indeed, she went so pale that Aggie hastily brought her a glass of blackberry cordial, and even this was unfortunate, for Lily May looked up and said, “If you want mother's recipe for homemade gin I think I can remember it.”
Tish was utterly disheartened when Charlie Sands went away, but he seemed to think everything would be all right.
“She's a nice child,” he said. “She's only living up to a type. And there isn't an ounce of hypocrisy in her. ”

“ I am convinced that I saw a box of rouge in that bag, Lizzie.”
But when, later on, she accused Lily May of making up her face, Lily May only smiled sweetly and said she was obliged to do so.
“Obliged!” Tish sniffed. “Don't talk nonsense.”
“Not nonsense at all,” said Lily May. “All the ——” She seemed to hesitate. “It's like this,” she said. “Make-up is respectable. The other thing isn't. When you see a woman these days with a dead-white face, watch her. That's all.”
Poor Aggie cast an agonized glance at herself in the mirror, but Tish stared hard at Lily May. ”

“ We had on our first day out taken what we imagined was a hundred pounds of various sorts, many unknown to us, and on the way to the fish wharf, while Aggie and I neatly arranged them as to sizes, Tish figured out the probable value.
“About forty dollars,” she said. “And if they take that thing with whiskers under its chin, even more. Gasoline, one dollar, Christopher's wages and boat hire per day, eight dollars. Clams, a dollar and a quarter. Leaving a net profit of twenty-nine dollars and seventy-five cents, or clear every month eight hundred and seventy dollars and fifty cents.” ”

“ I want you to take her, Tish, and show her that high principles still exist in the older generation. They seem to think we are all hypocrites and whited sepulchers. But most of all, I want to get her away from Billy Field. He is an enchanting person, but he couldn't buy gas for her car. Jim says if he can earn a thousand dollars this summer he'll think about it. ”

“ As Tish has been for many years a member of the W.C.T.U., she protested at once, but the taxi man seemed to think it funny until Tish turned on him.
“It is you,” she said, “and your kind who make it impossible to enforce the best law our nation has ever passed. If there is liquor in that bag,” she said to Lily May, “it will not remain in this apartment one instant. Lizzie, open the bag, and pour the wretched stuff into the kitchen sink.” ”

“ There was a frightful noise going on overhead, and as I drifted away I heard another shot or two, and then the captain's voice.
“I've got her, the h——cat!” he called. “Start the engine, Bill. We'd better get out of here.”
And the next minute the engine of the schooner was starting and they were getting the anchor up. The schooner was moving away.
I cannot write my sensations without pain. The schooner starting off; my dear Tish a prisoner on that accursed boat, helpless, possibly injured; and Lily May, who had been placed in our care, on that accursed vessel. ”

“ Tish says that she knew then that he was no fisherman, but it was not for several days that he told her his story.
“I am not exactly a fisherman,” he said. “I can run a boat all right, so you needn't worry, but in the winter I clerk in a shoe store in Bangor, Maine. But there is no career in the shoe business, especially on a commission basis. In New England the real money goes to the half-sole-and-heel people.” ”

“ It's my belief Jerry's running liquor, and he won't let a revenue boat near the wharf.”
But he had, he said, discovered a way to circumvent Jerry. He and Bill and Joe fished, all right, only they dried the fish and packed them in boxes.
“Some day,” he said, “we'll land those fish, and old Jerry will find the market glutted. That's all; glutted.” He had, he said, a hundred boxes in the hold already. “Only trouble is,” he went on, “we're getting overloaded. If a big sea comes along, and one's due most any time, they may shift, and then where are we?” ”

“ As Tish said afterward, there was no profit for the church in the arrangement, but there was a spiritual gain to all of us.
“There are things one cannot measure in dollars and cents,” she said.
We all agreed, and rose to see Mr. MacDonald to the door. But I think he left in a divided state of mind, for Christopher, standing near the table, upset the bottle of blackberry cordial, and Aggie, who had been watching it, gave a wail and started for it. But the floor was still going up and down to her, and her progress across the room was most unsteady. ”

“ And Aggie suffered also, for on the hay-fever season coming on she brought out her medicinal cigarettes, and Lily May walked right out and bought her a vaporizing lamp instead, which smelled simply horrible when lighted.
But it was over Hannah that Tish suffered the most, for of course Lily May had had her hair bobbed, and Hannah rebelled the first minute she saw it.
“Either she wears a hat or I don't, Miss Tish,” she said. “And you'd better put a hat on her. The way that janitor is hanging around this place is simply sinful.” ”

“ But she was seasick on the way back, and so was Aggie. I took the lookout, therefore, and it must have been four or five miles from land that I saw something straight ahead in the fog, and Tish turned out just in time to avoid a bell buoy. It was not ringing!
Tish at once stopped and examined it. It consisted of a small platform above which rose a superstructure with a bell at the top, and clappers which struck the bell as the sea moved it this way and that. But the bell had fallen down and now lay on the platform.
“This is a very serious matter,” Tish said. ”

“ We therefore decided to retain Christopher and the Swallow, although the price, two hundred and fifty dollars a month, seemed rather high.
“We do not need Christopher,” she said, “but if we must take him with the boat we must. He can chop wood and so on.”
We spent the next day getting settled. The island was a small one, with only a few fishermen”s houses on it, and Tish drew a sigh of relief.
“No men except Christopher,” she said tome. “And she detests him. And who can be small in the presence of the Atlantic Ocean? She will go back a different girl, Lizzie. Already she is less selfish. ”

“ Charlie Sands seemed to understand, for he nodded.
“Pretty fair,” he said.
But it seems they relaxed after that, and then she got them started on mixing different kinds of drinks. She would say, Did you ever try this and that, with a drop of something else floated on the top? And she would taste the things they brought, and they would take the rest.
“It was Bill who went under first. He went asleep standing up,” she said. And the captain next. But by that time Tish had freed herself, and she knocked Joe out with a piece of chain that was handy. ”

“ Tish had read us the letter, but she had already made up her mind.
“It is a duty, she said, “and I have never shirked a duty. Annabelle Carter has no more right to have a daughter than I have; I've seen her playing bridge and poker before that child. And she serves liquor in her house, although it is against the law of the nation.”
And later on: “What the girl needs,” she said, “is to be taken away from the artificial life she is living, and to meet with Nature. ”

“ The sea is still free, although the bootleggers seem to think they own it. But I do not intend to profit by this freedom. The money thus earned will go to foreign missions.”
She bought a book on New England fish, and spent a long time studying it. Then she went to our local fish market and secured a list of prices.
“With any luck,” she said, “we should catch a hundred pounds or so a day. At sixty cents a pound, that's sixty dollars, or we'll say thirty-six hundred dollars for the summer. There may be a bad day now and then.” ”

“ There's nothing a cat will get real worked up about like a nice mess of fish.”
He then went up the ladder, leaving us in speechless fury. But Tish recovered quickly and began figuring again. “Six haddock at seven pounds each,” she said. “Forty-two pounds at thirty-five cents per pound, or about fourteen dollars. At least we've made our expenses. And of course we can eat some.”
Aggie, who had felt the motion severely coming in, raised herself from the bottom of the boat at this, and asked for another sip of cordial. ”

“ Finally it brought up against one of the poles of the fish pier and went asleep there. It was a disgraceful exhibition.”
“Tish,” Aggie said suddenly, “if this floor doesn't keep still that bottle will upset.”
Mr. MacDonald stared at her and then cleared his throat.
“Of course I'm taking for granted,” he said, “that you ladies believe in upholding the law.”
“We are members of the W. C. T. U.,” Tish explained. “We stand ready to assist our nation in every possible way. We do not even believe in beer and light wines.” ”

“ So the matter was determined, and Tish appealed to Charlie Sands, her nephew, to find her an island. I shall never forget hie face when she told him why.
“A flapper!” he said. “Well, your work's cut cut for you all right.”
“Nonsense!” Tish said sharply. “I have been a girl myself. I understand girls.” ”

“ Nature,” she said, “is always natural. A mountain is always a mountain; the sea is the sea. Sufficient of either should make her forget that boy.”
“Too much of either might, Tish,” I said, rather tartly, “You can drown her or throw her over a precipice, of course. But if you think she'll trade him for a view or a sailboat, you'd better think again.”
But Tish was not listening.
“An island,” she said, ‘would be ideal. Just the four of us, and Hannah. Simple living and high thinking. That's what the young girls of today require.”
“1 often wonder,” Aggie said sadly, “what Mr. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1958, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 65 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”