Sarah J. Prichard

“ Between the two lay grassy meadows—a depression in the level, up which the old ocean crept twice in the year, and also in great storms; a bit of a wood, beyond which came salt meadow again; and then the uplands, rising to the Point. It seemed a very short cut home to Kate. The bewitching greens that lay rolled in long and wide breadths for her feet to tread had all been prepared by Madame June, the best carpet-maker in the zone. Kate climbed the stone wall opposite Mrs. Dobson’s house, and not a soul saw her disappear into the grass behind it, save Josh, if indeed Josh has a soul. ”

“ The dawn came at last, but the fog was not gone. It seemed denser than ever; boats went down the harbor and outside, but came back only too soon, to say that it was of no use, nothing could be done,—clear weather could alone solve the mystery.
If the day was long on the shore, it was yet longer to the lad in the boat. He rowed aimlessly; as dinner time came he looked at the fish, a few of which lay in the boat, and wondered if he could eat raw fish. He varied his rowing with sitting afloat and shouting. ”

“ Kate Hallock was drawing near to Mrs. Dobson’s house in the lane. “Dear grandma!” she called, “I’m just perishing with hunger! I’m starved nearly to death! I’ve had no breakfast yet! Will you give me a piece of your rye bread and butter?”
The dear old lady’s curls were bound about with a muslin kerchief, for it was her morning for churning, and the stone jar, with its little wooden dasher, was waiting her hands when Kate’s plaint broke upon her hearing.
“Hungry! starving! no breakfast! What does it mean, Kittie Clover?” ”

“ A snag is an old tree or something that gets caught in the mud and is under the water,” corrected Harry.
“O!” said Kate, glad that Harry was blindfolded. “Well, we’ll have something else, then—a big storm, hills and mountains of running waves, awful thunder and lightning, and the ship gets struck by lightning—no, by a big wave, and tumbles all to pieces.”
“And the dolls all spill out and go floating off!” suggested Harry.
“How can you at such an awful time think of making fun?” asked Kate, “just as the ship had been struck by lightning, too!” ”

“ At present I have not.”
“Would Neptune do it?”
“Neptune?”
“Why, yes. Don’t you remember asking me one day if I would sell him? and I will, papa, if it is to somebody who will treat him kindly and love him.”
“Kate, my dear, perhaps I may be compelled to take your offer; but we will see about it; and if I do, you shall have the finest pony—”
“O, papa! don’t,” cried Kate. “I don’t want any other pony, not as long as I live; it’s so dreadful to love anything that can be bought and sold. ”

“ And Kate poured out the story in a manner as refreshing as a summer shower, ending it with the good news that papa had just received a telegram from Mr. Isaac Dobson that “we will be home on the midday train.”
“And grandma is going to church!” said Harry. “I’m afraid somebody will tell her he’s coming.”
“Not a soul will dare to do it,” remarked Mrs. Hallock. “I would carry the sad news of a death far sooner than this dreadful joy to Mrs. Dobson. We must just wait for the truth to discover itself.”
Grandma Dobson went that Christmas morning, for Kate had the bliss of driving her to the church. ”

“ He trapped lobsters, caught crabs, dug clams, sat for hours together holding the line over the edge of his boat that rocked idly on summer seas, in the hope of catching a black fish a little larger than any other fisherman had caught; and perfectly delighted to spend his nights in throwing out and drawing in the long seines, in the hope of the heaviest haul of bass or bluefish that ever came to shore. This was the master, Captain Green, who proposed to spend two hours every day at Hallock Point. He could run down the harbor to the Point, tie up his boat, and then, after lessons, go outside. ”

“ When the men, looking out for the nearest house to take Harry Cornwall into, after his fall from the pony, espied Grandma Dobson’s habitation, that dear old soul was at that window looking out over the bar, past the island, away across the miles of sea, thinking it just possible—at least she would look once more, it could do no harm, for the Snow. ”

“ As she drew near, she called out, “Frank! Frank! why in the world don’t you come to dinner? There is a gentleman at table who came to see papa on business, and I ran away after the soup—I couldn’t eat my dinner one bit, without you.”
“You’ll have to, I reckon,” returned Frank; “a poor fellow, like me, who has to hoe corn all day, can’t stop to eat.”
“O, Frank Hallock! for shame!” cried Kate, putting down her indignant foot without being able to make noise enough about it to disturb an earthworm. ”

“ It is so sweet to drop little acts of kindness as we pass along our daily round. They may fall seemingly into the ground, but God knows that not one of them ever fails to do its own bright work somewhere for some one.
Kate Hallock went home with the empty basket, wondering what she should do with herself all the June afternoon. She thought that she would go past the field where Frank was at work and on down the lane leading to the sea. It would be nice and cool down there, and maybe she could dig some clams with her own hands, just enough for Frank’s supper. ”

“ Kate grew practical as the great, round, purple clover-heads nodded to her out of the tall grass. “Yes, I’ll get you, my beauties,” she cried. “Mother is so fond of dried grasses and things when the fall comes, and it’s just the time and chance to get some.” 58Presently her small hands were filled to their utmost capacity, and yet she had not half enough. Her apron proved too small before she had crossed a single field, and the first fence surprised her with her gathered-up dress skirt running over with bobbing grasses. ”

“ She gathered the little ones within the blanket and hugged them until they fell asleep. For nearly two days the waves were all about us and we had only water from the lake to drink, but at last we were picked up and taken into Port Huron.”
“But what about yourself? Tell us what you did after that,” urged Kate.
“I—why I—went back to Rock Falls. What else could I do?”
“And then?” urged Kate.
“Do not ask Harry unless he chooses to tell,” said Mrs. Hallock, wiping her eyes.
“But I do; I must,” said Harry. “I shall feel better when I have told it all. ”

“ Dobson would invite her to stay to dinner: but the dear little woman only looked up from her boiling and baking to say—Mrs. Dobson always called Kate “Kittie, my Clover”—
“Now Kittie, my Clover, if you and Frank will come over and stay from five to seven this afternoon, I shall be very glad to go out a little while.”
“Why, Grandma Dobson,” cried Kate, “how that fire is burning your face up; I wouldn’t cook when ’twas so warm, if I were you. Let me turn over that meat, I won’t drop it in the fire.” ”

“ Kate disappeared behind Frank’s back, and he hoed away as fast as ever he could, until she returned and said:
“Frank, there’s twenty-seven rows.”
“Never can do it in the world! There’s ninety-three hills in every single row.”
“Won’t it be nice to help you pick the corn! Papa won’t call that having help about it, I know. O I wish it was time for harvest! Won’t it be just nice to have piles and piles of great ears, all your own! You’ll be most rich, won’t you, Frank?” cried Kate, joyously clapping her hands before the imaginary heaps of corn. ”

“ The first tent that goes up will be for the breakfast.”
“It will be most as good as the circus, its own self,” thought Frank, and forgetting Kate, his hoe, and his corn, he followed on, until the long procession came to the ground where the great display of animals and human dexterity was to be made.
“Isn’t it jolly?” he cried, as he watched the hurried movements of the men pitching the great tent and the side tents, rolling the cages to their appointed places, picketing the elephants and the camels, and leading off the tired horses to be fed. ”

“ Stupid, ain’t it?”
“I’d go and go, and walk and climb and run, years and years, to see the same old faces and have the same old home again!” said Harry, choking and sobbing to a degree that quite upset Frank Hallock.
“You just come home with me, then, and see my father and mother,” said Frank, not knowing how to suggest comfort in any other form.
“They wouldn’t let me,” sobbed Harry, quite broken down by a touch of sympathy. “Nice folks don’t like circus folks at all; you know they don’t.” ”

“ Dobson, unwilling to be left alone in the mysterious fog even for a minute, held Josh by the collar and slowly felt her way along the Lane fence to the beach, wishing with all her heart, as she went, “that the Lord had not made boys and men so venturesome. Poor, dear lad!” she thought, as she stumbled along from post to post. “He never will get there! He’ll be lost on the awful sands! the cruel, creeping tide will draw him down. O, Harry, Harry!” ”

“ The doctor was already at the gate untying Spry when they reached it.
“Now, my little folks,” said he, “is your chance to see the poor fellow. He’s a plucky lad, and will make a glorious pull through life, I know.”
“Thank you,” said Frank, although he could not have told what he was thanking the doctor for, while Kate, who had made up her mind that Harry was a kind of hero—what kind she did not know—could have kissed the old doctor, for just thinking well of the lad. ”

“ If he takes the trouble to come here every day from the village, he may as well have two pupils as one.”
“And, papa,” suggested Kate, “why not three, as well as two? There is Harry, and you know how he has had to stay out of school with the plowing and the planting and the hoeing, and all sorts of things, and now he could get time just as well as not to run over for his lessons; and papa,” she added slyly, whispering the words in at his ear so that Frank might not hear, “Frank would have to study then, ’cause he would be ashamed to have Harry get ahead, a poor circus boy, you know!” ”

“ Mr. Primrose lived in the red house, and when I found out that the Indian wished me to stay there until there was a chance to send me home, I cried, and made such a fuss about it, that she took hold of my hand, twitched me out of the house, and down the next hill as fast as she could go; but as it was not until I had a nice warm breakfast, I did not care much about it. After that Anawa begun to talk to me about everything we saw along the way, and when I got very tired she sat down and waited until I had rested. ”

“ Very kindly, when Frank could tell his name and home, the schooner Blue Bell put into harbor at New Haven, to land him there.
“You’d better telegraph home, my boy, the instant you get on shore,” said the Captain to him. “It won’t be a moment too soon to relieve their minds.”
“I suppose, Captain,” said Frank, thanking him with a deal of boyish gratitude for having been so good as to save him, and go ten miles out of his way to land him—“I suppose, Captain, by the time you’ve sailed home to Maine, you’ll find three or four reams of paper done up into thanking letters, waiting for you.” ”

“ With a firm resolve to be a better boy, sell the Clover, and be kind to Kate and love everybody, and always tell the truth and do just right, if he ever got to land, Frank sank into a state of damp unconsciousness. ”

“ Before the man, who was about to urge Harry’s inability to pay, could speak, Frank Hallock reached the pier.
“Here’s five dollars,” he cried, “for the man who finds Captain Green and brings him in through the fog.”
In a moment a half dozen men stepped off the pier into as many boats and began to pull down into the fog. The harbor’s mouth was a half mile away.
Frank and Harry lingered only to hear the last stroke of oar, and then Harry suggested going down to the Sound beach, past which the boats must go to get to sea. ”

“ I thought papa was rich. We live like rich folks, I am sure, and I don’t think we ought to make any pretence about anything. Grandma Dobson doesn’t, and I shouldn’t wonder one bit if that is just the reason that her poor brown house always seems so pleasant. Has papa lost much money?”
“Yes, my dear. Your papa may have to give up our pleasant home here; but we hope to keep it.”
Kate began to look very sorrowful.
“Then, mamma, why send Frank to school at all?” she questioned. “It will cost ever so much money.” ”

“ What would you do without pretty things?”
“I should love you, Kate.”
“But I’m pretty, folks say,” said Kate archly; and then Harry and Frank couldn’t help laughing at Kate, and everybody felt better for that little laugh. And the Hallocks hurried home; for the brothers and sisters who were married, and had homes of their own, were come to spend Christmas at the house on the Point, and there was to be a grand Christmas dinner that day.
Mrs. Dobson and Harry sat down to eat their Christmas dinner; while Josh looked on, quite certain that his own dinner would come soon after. ”

“ Hallock Point without Frank Hallock, Kate did not think could be a home at all, and just there, Kate began to wonder why she could not go to boarding school quite as well as Frank. Certainly she was as old, and as for progress in school, she was far in advance of her brother. Besides, it would be, O, so nice, to think of it! Frank at General Russell’s, and she at school in New Haven, too. Frank would come and visit her in his gay uniform, and how proud she would be of her handsome brother, only Kate did hope he would not pinch or slap her before the other girls. ”