Raymond S. Spears

“ In the morning she dropped out again about eight o’clock and then discovered that the swift peninsula current carried her right down to the motor-boat, which had started forty minutes before in a dragging current. So, as they passed the Slough Landing whisky-boat, they weren’t two hundred yards apart, and at Gates Landing, two miles down, they were only a hundred yards apart.
Columbiana was vexed. She gazed steadfastly at the red boat without seeing anyone. She had the feeling that in the cabin was a man watching her. ”

“ The man gazed at the young woman with scowling expression and puzzled eyes. A number of the adult spectators chuckled. The children looked from one to the other, wondering. The game stopped while the shanty-boat went drifting on down, and the woman pulled clear of the shoal and began to make the crossing below. ”

“ At the table the big man was silent and even diffident. His smooth-shaven face, his bright, blue eyes and his quick smile were attractive, especially to children, whom he seemed to understand better than grown folks. They got nothing from him at the table, not even whether he was out of the Ohio or the Upper Mississippi. Clean, mannerly and a listener; Mrs. Cramell liked him better than ever, for he made talking so easy for her—and she had so much to say!
After supper he took down Cramell’s banjo and began to pick it to the immense delight of the little girl, not to mention Cramell and Mrs. ”