DEATH IN MID OCEAN--LOVE MAKING AND A DOUBLE WEDDING.
"The birds are mating, and the spring will soon open, and when the
little songsters come to you, I am coming with them," wrote Little
Wolf to Mrs. Tinknor in the month of February.
So now, dear reader, let us skip the intervening months, and go half
way to meet her. Her friends having planned to carry out their promise
to Captain Green, whose acquaintance and that of his little daughter
Flora, it will be remembered, she formed on her outward trip; all we
have to do is to take passage on the steamship "Northern Star,"
Captain Green, commander, and we will soon have the pleasure of
greeting our heroine.
Little Flora, who has once more been permitted to accompany her papa,
is all impatience, and almost every hour of the day she may be heard
singing, "O dear, I am so wery, wery, anxious to see dear Miss
DeWolf," and "papa, ain't you wery, wery, anxious to see Miss DeWolf?"
The Captain assures his daughter that he is "wery anxious," and,
indeed, when he says so, his dark eyes kindle, and his fine, sunburnt
countenance glows and warms expressively under his broad brimmed hat.
The day has come at last, and Little Wolf's party are aboard, but oh,
how changed are they all!
Consumption has fastened itself upon poor Alfred Marsden. His days are
numbered, and for earth he seems to have but one desire, to see again
his childhood home, and die there. His faithful nurses, Annie and
Little Wolf, have grown pale and thin, His sister's eyes are tear
stained, and Little Wolf's also grief shaded, for together they have
watched over and tended him, striving to drive away that unseen
something, which makes his cheeks and lips so white, and takes fast
hold upon his vitals, determined to wrench him away from those he
loves.
It will not even grant his last wish; for here, in mid ocean, he
grapples with death. All day long those fair young faces have bent
over him, and his friend, the Captain, has been there with them, and
little Flora has hovered near with trembling lips, whispering softly,
"I am so wery, wery, sorry."
As the evening draws on, the sick man revives a little, and in a low,
rapid tone, says something to his sister, which we do not hear, but
with a few hurried words to Little Wolf, she moves away with the
Captain and Flora, and Little Wolf is left alone with the dying. All
that he is breathing into her ear we shall never know; but her cheek
changes, and her lip quivers, and she bends over and kisses him
tenderly.
That hungry look in his eyes is gone. He is satisfied, and now,
surrounded by those he loves, he dies with a smile upon his lips.
His body will not rest in the place prepared for him in Greenwood,
beside his parents, but will sink into the ocean's Greenwood, where
the sea shall ever kiss his lips, where flowers bloom, and things of
beauty are perpetual, and coral monuments are raised, out-rivalling
those of the cemeteries of art.
The fair moon shines out upon the waves and the winding sheet, and the
burial is over.
Three days more, and we shall be on shore again," says Little Wolf,
half regretfully.
The Captain is by her side, and he bends over and says something which
we do not hear.
Little Wolf shakes her head, and her ingenuous little face says no, as
plainly as words could.
A shade of disappointment manifests itself in the Captain's manner,
and again he speaks.
His companion still replies in the negative.
"Then he was but a deer friend, and I may be the same," says the
Captain, now loud enough to be heard.
Now Little Wolf says distinctly, "yes, you may be the same, Captain
Green. You rescued me in perils by sea, and he in perils by land. He
told me with his latest breath how he had saved me from certain
destruction when I was a little child, and--"
"And how he loved you in after years, and how he longed to kiss you,"
said the Captain, seeing her hesitate.
"Yes, Captain," said Little Wolf solemnly, he told me that, and more
which you must not hear."
"I know how he felt," says the Captain, folding his arms across his
breast, "for I would be willing to die, if you would but kiss me."
"Captain," Little Wolf's cheek grows scarlet, and she pauses to choke
down a strong emotion, "there is a man _living_ whom I have kissed,
and I shall never kiss another."
The Captain's voice sinks very low in reply, but Little Wolf warmly
takes his proffered hand, and it is easily to be seen that more than a
common friendship has sprung up between them.
Now the Captain, Little Wolf, Miss Marsden, and little Flora, have
become almost inseparable. A permanent parting is not once spoken of
between them. Their last day at sea is spent in planning to be
together for the summer.
It has transpired that Little Wolf's protege, Fanny Green, is a niece
of the Captain's. His elder brother, Fanny's father, having formed bad
habits, ran away from home, and it was supposed, went to sea, and had
not been heard of by his family up to the time of the Captain's
acquaintance with Little Wolf.
In the course of a few weeks, the Captain and Flora, are to accompany
Little Wolf and Miss Marsden to Minnesota, where they expect to greet
their newly discovered little relative.
A few weeks later, and everything was in company order at Squire
Tinknor's, and Fanny Green's demure little face looked out of the
window, almost the entire day that Little Wolf and her friends were to
arrive, and when, just at twilight, a carriage brought them to the
gate, she shrank away in the folds of the curtain, and Little Wolf
found her there sobbing for joy.
Her cousin Flora greeted her with the remark, "Why, dear me, how wery,
wery large you are, cousin Fanny; I thought you would be smaller than
me."
Little Wolf found letters awaiting her from the Hanfords, and
Antoinette Le Clare, urging her to come with her friends and spend a
few weeks at Fairy Knoll.
It was decided that they should accept the invitation, and
accordingly, on a warm summer morning, a requisition was made on
Squire Tinknor's horses and carriage, and Tom was installed as
driver.
Fanny and Flora were to be left with Mrs. Tinknor, and, as Tom
tenderly kissed the former, his charge to her was, "Take care of
yourself, Fanny dear, for you know you have promised to be my little
wife," and Flora said that was "wery, wery nice."
The Captain occupied a seat beside Miss Marsden, and Little Wolf sat
by Tom, whom, having ceased to be a lover, she found to be quite
entertaining, and they amused themselves by building air castles and
earth castles, such as baloons and orphan asylums; and indeed, by the
time Fairy Knoll loomed up before them in the moonlight, they had
become warmer friends than they had ever been.
As they neared the cottage, Little Wolf could not repress a sigh, for
too well did she remember her emotions on that wintry morning, when
she and Edward Sherman left that spot together, so light of heart, so
full of hope and joy.
Out sprang the watchers from within, to welcome their guests, and into
the arms of Edward Sherman sprang Little Wolf. She had instantly
recognized him, and a glad cry escaped her, as he caught her to his
breast.
The Captain saw all at a glance, and he then knew whom Little Wolf had
kissed, and who was kissing her. Light also seemed to have suddenly
dawned on Tom's benighted vision.
Without ceremony or apology, Edward bore our heroine away to a retired
spot in the grove surrounding the cottage. Their interview was not
interrupted, until Tom, in the course of half an hour had the temerity
to venture out, and suggest the propriety of Little Wolf's partaking
of a cup of tea.
"Did we not manage it nicely?" said Antoinette Le Clare to Little Wolf
when they were alone. "Mr. Sherman came out for a little recreation,
and did not think of seeing you. We made him think that it was his
sister we were expecting, and when he rushed to meet her and saw who
it was you ought to have seen his face."
On the subject of lovemaking, which was witnessed by the trees in the
grove at Fairy Knoll, we will be silent. But the double wedding which
followed was public and grand, and took place at St. Paul, under Mrs.
Tinknor's supervision.
Miss Marsden returned to New York as Mrs. Captain Green, and little
Flora declared herself "wery, wery fond of her new mama."
Mr. and Mrs. Sherman accompanied them as far as the city of Pendleton,
where Edward proposes to make his future home.
At parting Tom wickedly mentioned to Little Wolf that he was concerned
for the prosperity of that much talked of orphan asylum. Whereupon the
dignified Mrs. Sherman assured him that having proved himself so
capable of preparing an asylum for the orphan in which they were
mutually interested, she thought him better adapted to carry out her
benevolent projects than she was, and consequently would leave the
matter in his hands for the present.
Not long after their marriage Edward Sherman discovered in his wife's
secretary a total abstinence pledge, to which was appended a long
list of names. It was the same which Mr. Marsden had drawn up on
shipboard, and "Alfred Marsden," headed the list.
Edward took it from its place, and he was in the act of signing his
own name at the bottom, when a bright curly head came between him and
the paper, and rosy lips whispered, "Thank you, Edward love, for this
free will offering."
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
Spelling and punctuation left as found in the original text.