At Garrison's Neck was the old Garrison "shanty"--Notely's ideal; well
preserved; built onto it a spacious dwelling, with stables attached,
after Mrs. Garrison's idea.
Notely's shanty was a mixture of elegant easy-chairs and drying
oil-skin raiment, black tobacco pipes, books, musical instruments,
fishing-tackle, mirth and evening firelight; all the gravitation of the
premises was toward it--the Garrison guests yearned for it.
His mother was with him now.
"You will drive down to the boat with me and meet them, Notely?"
Notely whistled with respectful concern, but his eyes were as happy as
the dawn.
"Oh, well, ah--h--I'll have to ask you to let Tom drive you down
to-day, mother. I've an engagement to sail over to Reef Island."
Mrs. Garrison did not condescend to look annoyed. She smiled, sweet
and high.
"Considering the social position of Mrs. Langham and her daughter, and
their wealth, Notely, you might postpone even that engagement.
Possibly you could arrange to play with the fisher girl some other day."
When Notely was puzzled or provoked he felt for the pipe in his pocket,
just like old Captain Pharo, laughed, and came straight again.
"Why, mother! you were a Basin girl yourself--the 'Beauty of the
Basins,'" he said, with soft pride--he knew no better--and smiled as
though he saw another face.
"Are you foolish?" said his mother, giving way sharply.
When one has come from such degree, has sought above all earthly good,
and earned, a social eminence such as Mrs. Garrison had attained, it
will leave some unbending lines on lip and brow; the eyes will not melt
easily, although it wrings one's heart to find that one's only child
is, after all, an ingrained Basin; yet their features were the same,
only Notely's were simple, expressive Basin eyes--hers had become
elevated.
"You! who have _in_ you such success, if you only would!" she cried.
"'Success,' I'm afraid, mother," said Notely, with one of those sighs
that was like a wayward note on his violin; "it 's a diviner thing,
however, you know, to have in you the capacity for failure."
"You are as remarkable a mixture of barbarism and sentiment as your
shanty," sneered Mrs. Garrison, looking about. "Do you speak in the
Basin 'meetings'?"
"No," said Notely. "I ought to. Think of what I have had, and their
deprivations. But there 's always something comes up so d--d funny!"
Mrs. Garrison smiled sympathetically now. "O Notely, think of the
Langhams, and Grace even willing to show her preference for you,
decorously, of course, but we all know."
Notely grabbed his pipe hard and shook his head.
"Why?" said his mother again, sharply. "I am sure Miss Langham is
nearly as boisterous and in as rude health as the fisher girl. I have
even known her to make important endearing lapses in grammar."
Notely was silent.
"Do you think, after a life-struggle to earn a place in society, it is
filial and generous on your part, for the sake of a fisher sweetheart,
to be willing to sink your family back again into skins and Gothicism?"
"Yes," said the young man, a hurricane in his blue eyes, which his
strong hands gripped back.
"Very well; if you so elect, go back then, and be a common fisherman;
but you shall have no countenance of mine."
"Shouldn't wonder if it would be a good thing. With the health I have,
give me leisure and plenty of money, and I'm always certain to break
the traces and make a run. Common fisherman it is." But he stood out
bravely at the same time in an extravagant new yachting costume, for he
was going by appointment to meet his sweetheart.
"You might help her up, mother--socially, that is; she needs no other
help."
"Never!"
Notely lifted his cap to his mother--the reproach in his eyes was as
dog-like as if he had not just graduated from the schools--and walked
away.
She looked after him, a scornful sweet smile curving her lips. As the
apple of her eye she loved him; it is necessary but hard to be elevated.
Notely put up sail and skirted the shore with his boat till he came to
the waters of the Basin. Then he looked out eagerly, but Vesty was not
on the banks waiting.
"Was there ever a Basin known to be on time?" he muttered, smiling and
flushing too. He was always jealous of her.
He made fast his boat and sprang with light steps over the sea-wall.
Here was a good sign; so the Basins held. No sign so propitious to a
love affair as meeting with one of God's innocent ones--a "natural."
And here was Dr. Spearmint (Uncle Benny) leading the children to
school--the very little ones. They clung to him, and one he carried.
And he was singing, in a sweet, high voice:
"We all have our trials here below,
Sail away to Galilee!
* * * *
There's a tree I see in Paradise,
Sail away to Galilee!
* * * *
Sail away to Galilee,
Sail away to Galilee,
Put on your long white robe of peace,
And sail away to Galilee!"
"Hello! Uncle Benny--'Dr. Spearmint'"--he liked that best. "Well, how
are you? how are you? and have you seen Vesty this morning?"
"Fluke and Gurd 's keepin' company with her this mornin'," said Dr.
Spearmint, in a voice softer than a woman's. "I jest stopped to sing a
little with 'em on the way. I _look_ dreadful," he added, rather
ostentatiously fingering a light blue necktie.
"Oh, no, doctor; fine as usual," exclaimed Notely, anger in his soul,
but with heart-broken eyes.
"I suppose," said the soft, sweet voice, "there 's a great deal o'
passin' in New York, ain't there?"
"What, doctor?"
"A great deal o' passin' there, ain't there?"
"Oh, sights of it! Oh, my, yes! passing along the streets all the
time."
"Some there 's worth four or five thousand dollars, ain't they?" said
the sweet, incredulous voice.
"God bless you! yes, doctor! the more 's the pity," said Notely, with
strange earnestness. "And how 's fruiting?"
"Dangleberries are quite plenty, thank you," the voice replied. When
he had left the little ones at school he would go off and gather
berries; but he would call for them without fail and lead them home.
The little, tired, restless souls always found him out there in the
sweet air and sunshine, waiting. Notely remembered; so he and Vesty
had been led.
He passed, singing, out of sight with the children:
"Sail away to Galilee,
Sail away to Galilee,
Put on your long white robe of peace,
And sail away to Galilee!"
Notely felt a homesick pang. Vesty was his home; he walked on toward
her threshold. Vesty's father had taken a new wife, and Vesty was
almost always seen now with a baby in her arms.
So she was sitting as Notely drew near; and Fluke and Gurdon were
there, with a pretence of fingering their violins. They looked up, as
if expecting him.
"Why did you not come, Vesty?" said her lover. "You promised me."
"I've got something to say about that," said Fluke. "I sot Vesty down
on that doorhold, and I threatened to shute her ef she moved off'n it.
When she was tellin' Gurd' that you was 'round again wantin' to keep
company with her jest the same, says I, 'We'll see about that.' Vesty
hain't got no brothers, nor no mother, to look after her, and so Gurd'
and me, which is twin brothers to each other, is also goin' to be
brothers to her, and see that there ain't no harm done to Vesty."
"Well, then, Fluke, you are the best friends that either of us have,"
said Notely calmly.
"Why didn't ye let her alone in peace?" blurted out Fluke. "She was
keepin' company contented enough along o' Gurd', ef you'd only left her
alone. What'd ye come back a-makin' love to her for?"
"Because she is going to be my wife," said Notely. "We always kept
company together; since we were that high! Belle Birds'll was Gurdon's
company. Vesty was my company." His voice trembled. This was simple
Basin parlance and unanswerable.
"Ye mean it?"
"If you want to fight, Fluke, come out and fight." Notely's eyes cut
him.
"All the same," said he, "ef you sh'd happen to change your mind by 'n'
by, as fash'nable fellers in women's light-colored clo's does
sometimes, there 's a-goin' to be shutin'."
Notely grabbed his pipe, and his laugh rang out.
"Come," he said, "you know me! you know me! Confound the pretty
clothes! I only put them on so as to try and have Vesty like me!"
"Wal' now, Vesty, make your choice. You'd ruther keep company along o'
Note than Gurd', had ye?" But he could not restrain the severe
contempt in his voice in making the comparison.
Vesty had been soothing her face in the baby's frowzled hair.
"_I told you_," she said. But she glanced up at Gurdon, and her face
was piteous, his had turned so white.
"Come, Gurd'! What d'ye care? Go on, Vesty, ef ye want to. Gurd 'n'
me'll tote the baby till Elvine gits back." He took the infant and
began to toss it, to compensate it for Vesty's withdrawal. His thick
black hair fell over his forehead, his nose was fine and straight.
Gurdon came forward obediently to assist him. He had the same great
bulk, and even handsomer features, only that his hair was smooth and
parted.
Vesty and her lover passed on together. Her heart was leaping with joy
and pride of him; still, she saw Gurdon's look.
"You have been so long at that great college, Notely."
"Yes."
"Why must some one always be hurt?"
"We go to school, but the schools can't teach us anything, Vesty.
"'Oh, sail away to Galilee,
Sail away to Galilee!'"
he hummed airily, gayly. "What was it you 'told them' back there,
Vesty?"
Where now was Vesty's Sunday face? You would look far to find it.
"I told them you were a dude," said she.
"Did you, indeed! Girls who lead the singing in Sunday-school are not
telling many very particular fibs this morning, are they? But you
shall own up before night."
O Vesty!--the call of the "whistlers" down in the meadow by the
sea-wall--"love! love! love!" No other note; it is that, too,
breathing in the swift Bails and bounding the sea!
"You sail your boat as well as ever, Captain Notely."
"And why not--wife?"
These were the appellations of the old days, taken from their
elders--"cap'n" and "wife."
Vesty did not think he would have dared _that_. Her dark eye chastised
him. But he was not looking impudent; he was resolute and pale.
Vesty shivered. With all her earnest, sad experience of life, with her
true love for Notely, she was yet in no haste to be bound. Wild, too,
at heart; or else somehow the sea wind and the swift sails had freed
her.
"Don't say that again. Come, catch the fish for our dinner, Note."
"I'm only a humble Basin, Miss Kirtland. I didn't think to fetch no
bait."
Vesty took a parcel of six small herrings from her pocket, laughing.
"Yes, our women are smart," sighed Notely.
"Shall you catch, or will I?"
"You," said Notely, tossing out the anchor.
He watched her, strong and beautiful, her lips pursed with the feline
pursuit of prey, as she baited her hook and threw out the line, quite
oblivious now, apparently, of him.
He saw her thrill with excitement as the line stiffened and she began
to haul in, hand over hand; it was a big cod too. Vesty always had the
luck. There was glory in her cheeks when she brought the struggling,
flopping fish over into the boat.
"Vesty," said Note mischievously, drawing near, "how would _you_ feel
to be caught like that on the end of somebody's line--struggling,
flopping?"
His sentimental tone gave way in spite of himself. She turned and gave
him a smart box on the ear.
"Very well, Miss Vesty Kirtland, very well. But there 's a marriage
ceremony and a binding to 'love, honor and obey,' after which young
women don't box their husbands' ears--aha!--at least, mine won't."
"Notely Garrison," said Vesty, with Basinly and womanly indignation, "I
never fished for you in all my life--never!"
"Instinctive, darling; not your fault. Unconscious cerebration; do you
understand?"
She did, a little, and she grievously disapproved of him.
"Kiss me, dearest," he pleaded. "You kissed me once, when I first came
home."
"All the m-more reason why you ought not to ask me now. I w-wish you'd
get your m-mind on something besides me."
Notely walked away, pulled up the anchor, and set sail again. Vesty
composed herself at the end of the boat.
"Sweet-tempered child!" said he, regarding her from the helm.
She dipped her hand in the water and smoothed her stray locks; they
curled up again. She was distressed, and Notely's mirthful eyes gave
her no rest.
"My mind is still on you, Vesty--and will be for ever and aye,
sweetheart."
With that he turned kindly and looked away, and Vesty bound up her hair.
Presently: "The tapestries are beautiful to-day, Note," she said.
They were sailing through the shallows near Reef Island, and they
looked down through the green water. Gold, bronze and yellow, and dark
velvet green, the tracings of broad sea-leaf and trailing vine on that
floor.
"There isn't another house in any land tapestried like ours, Vesty.
Say, wouldn't that be a charming place, after all, to rest, when----"
"You're getting aground, Note!"
"Thank you! How fortunate that you are aboard! I know how to steer a
boat a little, of course, but nothing like----"
Vesty laughed, dazzled by this sarcasm. "But you didn't think of the
bread or the salt or the pork for the chowder," said she triumphantly.
"Ah, I see you have them. You always think of those things. You were
always my little woman, you know. You are my home."
As the boat touched the ledge she sprang out before him. By the time
he had fastened his boat and clambered over the ledges with the kettle
which he had brought from the crane in his shanty, Vesty had a fire of
drift-wood burning.
She prepared the chowder, while he whittled out some forks of wood and
gathered firm pieces of kelp for dishes.
They ate, with only the voice of the gulls, screaming, flying in
disturbed, beautiful flight over the wide, lone island.
"Now for the gulls' eggs," said Vesty, rising, no dishes to put away.
"What a carnivorous little wild-cat it is--for one so necessary to the
sick and afflicted!"
"Didn't you come to hunt gulls' eggs, Note?"
"You know that that is my sole aim and ambition in life. Come!"
Over ledges and salt marshes, at the feet of the thin, storm-broken
trees, they found them, nestled there, three, four, eight in a nest,
the birds flying, circling overhead. Vesty gathered them in her apron,
eager, searching from tree to tree. Her hair came down. She looked up
at Note, apologetic, humble, so eager she hardly minded.
"Hold my apron, Note."
This he did obediently.
With downcast eyes and a blush on her cheeks that would have exonerated
Eve, she wound up her hair again, and restored her own hold on her
apron.
"I did not kiss you then, Vesty."
"Well, of course."
"I'm good, but my mind is still on you."
Over ledges and salt marshes, and the thin, storm-broken trees, and out
there on the water there 's a strange color growing. Even the Basins
seldom fail to _start_, at least, for home by sunset.
So a little white sail puts out on the crimson sea. The breeze is
dying out, the waters lap, subside. Notely takes down the sail and
rows.
The sea fades to softer colors, hushed, wondrous, near the dim shore.
"It isn't ever known, in any place in all the world, that angels--no, I
know--but look, Note!--they almost might."
"Only here at the Basin, Vesty; when that very last light fades. I saw
two flying up--flying back again--just now. How many did you see?"
She turned her happy, awesome eyes on him, but his keen face, in that
light, was as simple and pathetic as her own.
"But my mind is on _you_, Vesty. Now, before we touch the shore, when
will you marry me?"
"I've been thinking. O Note, perhaps it isn't my place to marry you;
perhaps I wouldn't do you any good to marry you, Note. They say you
were first in your class, off there, and there are so many things for
you, and your mother, and friends, will help you so much more--if I
don't."
"I may as well tell you the truth, Vesty. I'm not that strong person
that I look"--the angels that he saw, flying up, will forgive that sly
smile on the boy's mouth--"I couldn't go away and leave you, and go
into that false, feverish struggle out there, and live anything more
than the wreck of a life, at least. I'm affected."
"Where is it that you have such trouble, Note?"
"It 's my heart, Vesty Kirtland. I must have a Basin for my wife,
calm, strong, sweet; one who can see the 'angels' now and then--just
you, in fact."
He handed her out of the boat and walked home with her. At the edge of
the alders they stood. They could see the light in her father's house.
"When, Vesty?" he repeated.
"O Note, I love you!" she sobbed; "but I must have a little time to
think. Every girl has that."
"Very well. You must _keep your mind on me_, however."
"Hark! hear the poplars tremble. You know what always makes them sigh
and shiver that way, Note?"
"I've forgotten."
"They made the cross for Christ out of the poplars; they never got over
it--see them shiver!--hush!"
"O my beautiful one!" He took her hands. "What was it you 'told them'
back there this morning, Vesty, before we started?"
"You are cruel! O Note!"
He drew her to him. Her lips would not tell. Her Basin eyes, that he
was gazing mercilessly into, betrayed her.
"Good child! sweet child! with my strong right arm, and a willingness
for all toil and patience and endeavor, and all my soul's love, I thee
endow." He kissed her solemnly.
"Love, love, love," chanted in ecstasy a thrush from the dim recesses
of the wood.
V