The day on which the bark sailed was one of those clear, bright days
that are so delightful in San Francisco, when the brisk breeze blowing
in from the sea, bringing the color to the cheeks and giving one an
indescribable feeling of thankfulness for the mere fact of being alive.
As Mabel stood on the deck, dressed in a jaunty sailor suit, she made as
pretty a picture as one could wish to see, with the soft curly locks of
golden hair blown out from under a snug little cap about her sweet face,
and among the large party of friends who had come down to see the vessel
off that was to carry Mabel on her eventful trip, there was at least one
young man, if not more, who thought her by far, the handsomest as well
as the brightest girl he knew, and felt that he would like very much to
tell her so. But Mabel had a peculiar way of her own of keeping young
men at a friendly distance, and the young man who looked at her with
such a longing in his heart had not dared to speak of love to her,
fearing to meet the fate of more than one of his acquaintances, for
already she had had a number of offers of marriage, for she was not only
a girl of wonderful beauty, but also exceedingly fascinating and
entertaining. She had every accomplishment that could be taught a woman
of the present day. Then another fact that may have had its influence on
some of her suitors was that her father was what is commonly called a
rich man and she an only child.
At last all was ready and the staunch little tug Relief, after much fuss
and bustle and blowing of whistles, had made fast to the bark. Mabel
threw herself into her father’s arms for a last good-bye. Now she stands
leaning over the rail, with one hand raised to shade her eyes from the
glare of the sun, and with the other waved farewell to those standing on
the wharf watching the slow, majestic progress of the vessel out towards
the blue Pacific.
Mabel strained her eyes for a last glimpse of the form of her father. It
never entered her mind that this is the last time she may ever see him,
but her heart is as gay and as light as a child’s as she joined Mrs.
Gray and her two daughters who are talking with a man of perhaps thirty,
who is dressed in the pronounced English style.
As Mabel had already met Mr. Allen Thornton, who was a fellow passenger,
she fell quickly into conversation with the group. Allen Thornton was
saying to Mrs. Gray, “Well, you know I had intended to take the steamer
for Melbourne, but reached San Francisco a day too late for the steamer,
and as I should have to wait about a month for the next one, then
finding that your vessel was to leave in a day or so with a pleasant
little party on board, and as I have a fondness for pleasant little
parties rather than large ones, not so agreeable, here I am. I do hope
you ladies are going to be awfully nice to me and try to do everything
in your power to make the trip a pleasant one for me.”
At which the three girls laughed heartily, and Etta, the younger of the
Gray girls, answered him with, “Oh, we’ll make it pleasant for you, if
waiting on us can make it so. I was just saying how nice it was to have
a young man along to wait upon us all the time as you won’t have another
thing in the world to do, and we shall have to keep you busy.”
“Oh, this is something simply fearful. I thought, being the only man in
this little party of idlers, you would vie with each other in your
efforts to amuse me; but alas, instead of that, you intend to use the
advantage of your superior number to reduce me to the level of a slave.”
“Don’t you wish you were safe on shore again,?” laughed Etta.
“I do not dare to say I wish it or you may perhaps throw me overboard
and tell me to strike out for the shore. No, I will try to bear your
tyranny,” saying which he settled himself comfortably in a big bamboo
chair, and after asking of the ladies permission to smoke and being
granted his request, he lit his pipe. He certainly looked as if he were
going to make the best of his lot.