Late August hung heavily over Quinton. The city folks, who counted their
year's playtime by two weeks' vacation, had come and gone, in relays.
The artists, never tiring of the changing charms of this new-found
beauty-spot, gave no heed to the passing season. Only cold, and acute
bodily suffering could attract their attention. Good, poor, and
indifferent revelled in the inspiration-haunted Hills and magnificent
sweep of shore.
The natives counted their gains with bated breath and dreamed visions of
future summers that made them dizzy.
Poor Susan Jane was the only woman, apparently, upon the mainland, who
had swung at anchor through all the changed conditions. Susan, who once
had been the ruling spirit of the village and Station! Susan, whose
sharp tongue and all-seeing eye had governed her kind! Susan had been
obliged to gather such bits of driftwood as had floated to her chair,
during the history-making season,--and draw such pleasure from it as
she could. The strain had worn upon the paralyzed body. The active mind
had stretched and stretched for material until the helpless frame
weakened. The sharp tongue was two-edged now, and gossip that reached
Susan Jane assumed the blackest color. Her searching eyes saw through
everything, and gripped all secrets.
David's songs, as he mounted the winding stairs, took on a soberer
strain. Sometimes he omitted, even at the top, his hilarious outburst to
the "lobster pots;" and his sigh and laugh combination was an hourly
occurrence.
Janet noticed it all. She was alive to the atmospheric chill of the
village, though in no wise understanding it. She was troubled and
fretted by many things, but she went her way. The money she had earned
by posing she dealt out in miserly fashion to Susan Jane; while at the
same time she assumed many household cares to ease David, whom she
loved.
There was no more money coming to her now, for after the scene in the
hut upon the Hills Thornly had gone away for a week, and upon his return
he had told Janet he would send her a message when again he needed her.
The man's tone had been most kindly, but it seemed a rebuff from which
the girl had not been able to recover. Once or twice she had stolen to
the hut, when she was sure the master was away; always the key was in
its hiding place. Softly she had gone in and stood in the sacred room.
The same picture stood ever upon the easel, the same beautiful
unfinished picture! Upon one visit the girl had taken a rare pimpernel
blossom she had found in a lonely hollow and laid it on the empty stool
before the canvas. It was still there when she went again! Faded and
neglected it lay before the shrine, and the message never came that was
to call her to the Hills.
The people of the village, too, were different. They were busy and took
small notice of the girl. Business, Janet thought, was the only reason.
Mrs. Jo G. in particular was changed, but it had been a hard summer for
Mrs. Jo G., and when, after many attempts to secure Janet as waitress,
she had failed, she turned upon the girl sharply.
"You might be doin' worse things!" she snapped, "you're growin' more an'
more like yer ma, an' it ain't t' yer credit!" That was the first inroad
the oncoming wave of sentiment had made in the bulkhead of local
reticence.
Janet started. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"What I say. An' what's more, Janet, if you can't turn in an' be useful
t' them as was good enough fur you before, you can stop away from us
altogether. I don't want Maud Grace t' get any fool notions in her
head."
Once Janet would have turned upon such an attack, but somehow the spring
of resistance was checked. After all what did it matter? But she took
her mother's picture from the carpet-bag that night and hid it in her
blouse with the long-silent whistle! More and more she remained at the
lighthouse. Seldom, even, did she sail over to the dunes and never
unless she felt strong enough to leave a pleasant impression upon Billy.
Over all this, Mark Tapkins watched and brooded, and he slouched more
dejectedly between the Light and his father's little home.
"I tell you!" he often confided to his inner self, "city life is
blightin'! When I was there, it took the breath out o' me, an' now it's
come t' Quinton, it's knocked a good many different from what they once
was!" With this oft-repeated sentiment Mark reached his father's door
one day and through it caught the smell of frying crullers. Old Pa
Tapkins was realizing his harvest from the boarders by acting upon
Janet's suggestion to Mark. From early sunrise until the going down of
the sun, Pa, when not necessarily preparing food for three regular
meals, was mixing, shaping, frying, and selling his now famous cakes.
People, in passing, inhaled the fragrance of Pa's cooking and stopped to
regale themselves and take samples to friends who were yet to be
initiated. Pa and his crullers were becoming bywords, and they often
helped out, where meals at the boarding place failed and conversation
lacked humor.
As Mark stepped into the kitchen, not only his father, but Captain Billy
hailed him.
"Hello! Cap'n Billy," cried Mark, "come off fur a change, have ye?"
"Yes, yes," Billy replied through a mouthful of cruller, hot enough to
make an ordinary man groan with pain. "Yes, yes; I've come off t' see
the doin's."
"Well, there is considerable goin's on," Mark nodded, and calmly helped
himself to a cake that was still sizzling; "there don't seem t' be no
signs of lettin' up on us!"
"Now, Markie!" purred Pa from the stove, "that ain't puttin' the case
jest as it is. Looked at from some p'ints, we are the clutchers."
Pa was a mild little man with a round, innocent face, and flaxen hair
rising in a curly halo about it. His china-blue eyes had all the trust
and surprise of a newly awakened baby. Life had always been to Pa
Tapkins a mild series of shocks, and he parried each statement and
circumstance in order that he might haply recognize it if he ran across
it again, or, more properly speaking, if it struck him a smarting blow
again. Pa never ran at all. As nearly as any mortal can be stationary,
Pa was; but in the nature of things, passing events touched him more or
less sharply in their progress.
"It ain't all their doin's, Markie, now is it?"
"Like as not it ain't, Pa. Sold many crullers t'-day?"
"I've sold all I've made, up t' this batch, Markie, an' I've been
putterin' over the heat since the mornin' meal."
"Well, I'll lay the things on fur the noon meal, Pa, you tend t'
business."
"But you ain't slept, Markie. Up all night an' no sleep nex' day!
'T won't do, Markie, now will it?"
"I'll sleep, come night time." Mark seized his third almost boiling
cruller and turned to Billy.
"You ain't seen Janet, hev you?"
Billy looked guilty. "No, an' I ain't a-goin' t' this trip. Mark, how is
things at the Light?"
"Squally as t' Susan Jane. Seein' others spry while she's chained by
the stroke ain't addin' t' Susan Jane's Christian qualities."
"Stormin' at Janet?"
"Janet comes in fur her share, but David gets the toughest blasts. I
don't see how Davy weathers it, an' still keeps a song an' a smile."
"An' him doin' another man's stint, too," Pa put in, dropping a brown
ring on the floor, spearing it adroitly again, and flipping it upon the
paper-covered platter. "If William Henry Jones hadn't gone down in that
squall thirty years ago, an' if Davy hadn't thought it was his duty t'
carry out his mate's plans, I'm thinkin' Susan Jane might have been
different an' Davy might not have had sich tormentin' experiences.
Least, that is how it struck me thirty year back, an' it strikes me so
yet."
Billy nodded appreciatively.
"'T ain't always wise t' tackle somebody else's job," Mark joined in,
"that's what come t' me in the city. City jobs ain't fur you! that's
what I said t' myself. Salt air was in my nostrils, the sound of the sea
in my ears, an' I couldn't any more hear t' the teachin' of city ways,
than the city folks can learn of us here on the coast."
Again Billy nodded. He felt his spirits rising as he looked upon this
man of the world and knew him as a friend.
"Draw up, Pa and Cap'n Billy!" Mark had collected a large and varied
repast. "Have some cold fowl, Cap'n, an' a couple o' 'taters. Lay hold
of a brace o' them ears o' corn. Over half a yard long an' as near black
as purple ever is. Inside they're white an' milky enough. Have some
blackberry pie, 'long with yer fowl, Cap'n. 'T ain't every day you can
get Pa's cookin'; an' I bleve in mixin' good victuals. It's what Nater
does."
Billy took everything suggested and ate it indiscriminately, and this
example was ably followed by his hosts.
"Mark!" Billy after a long but significant silence sat back in his chair
and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, "Mark, I'm goin' t' ask ye
t' jine me in a rather shady job. Do ye happen t' know the particular
women painters as is usin' Janet fur a--modil?"
Mark strangled over a kernel of corn and stared, teary-eyed, at Billy.
"Modil?" he finally gasped, "modil? Why, Cap'n, that ain't no word t'
tack ont' Janet. Modils ain't moral or decint. I learned that in th'
city from a painter-chap as use t' come in t' the shop an' eat isters
when he could afford it."
Billy's face lengthened.
"'T is 'mong friends I speak?" Billy dropped his voice. Both men nodded.
"Well, Janet is a modil t' some of them dirty-aproned women painters!
An' I want t' see just how they've took her, an' what they calkerlate t'
do with the picter! Andrew Farley has been modilin' fur them, an' Andy's
'count of how he looks in paint ain't pleasant. I don't know as I want
Janet shown up in the city kinder onsightly."
During this explanation Mark's countenance had assumed an expression of
intense suffering. Bits of gossip arose like channel stakes in the
troubled water of his misery. Like the bits of red cloth which marked
the stakes in the bay, Susan Jane's emphasis of such gossip fluttered
wildly in this hour. Through the channel, clearly set by these signals,
was a wide course leading direct to a certain hut upon the Hills of
which silent, watchful Mark knew!
"She ain't no modil, Cap'n, don't say that!" he finally managed to get
out; "that's jest scandalous gossip."
"She told me herself!" Billy brought his tilted chair to the floor; "an'
I got t' keep this visit secret. But, since the gal ain't got no mother,
I've got t' do double duty. Knowin' how up in city ways ye are, Mark, I
thought maybe ye'd pilot me on this trip. I'm turrible clumsy with
strangers, specially women, an' I want t' do what's right."
"'T ain't--a--woman!" This declaration was wrung from Mark.
"What's that?" Billy sprang from his chair.
"Now, Markie, do be keerful!" cautioned Pa, "don't make no statement ye
can't stand by. Nation! that fat is burnin'!"
"I said, 'twarn't no woman painter as done Janet. If she has been a
modil--an' 'twere you as said that--she's been one to a man!"
The horror on Billy's face was pitiful.
"Can you locate him?" he asked in trembling tones. Mark nodded.
"Come on, then!"
In silence the two departed. Pa hardly noticed them; the burning fat
claimed his entire attention.
Mark strode ahead toward the Hills and Billy, with the swing of the
lonely patrols, brought up the rear.
It was the dining hour and Quinton was almost deserted in the hot August
noon.
"Don't let's get het up," advised Mark presently; "city folks is
powerful clever 'bout keepin' cool inside an' out."
"I'm already het!" panted Billy.
"Let's take it easier;" Mark paused in the path, and wiped his streaming
face. They did not speak again until Thornly's hut was almost at their
feet. Billy's face was grim and threatening, but Mark's showed signs of
doubt and wavering. His recollections of city calm and coolness were not
uplifting in this emergency. Folks in town had always outwitted Mark by
their calmness.
Thornly's door was set open to strangers and whatever air was stirring.
He, himself, was sitting inside, his back to his coming guests and his
eyes upon the unfinished picture upon the easel.
Remnants of a chafing-dish meal were spread upon a small table, and
silence brooded over all. It was only when Mark and Billy stood at the
door that Thornly turned. The look of expectancy died in his eyes as he
saw the weather-beaten countenance of Billy, and the shamefaced features
of Mark.
"I do not want any sitters, thank you," said he.
"We don't want t' set," Billy replied firmly and clearly.
"I beg your pardon," Thornly smiled pleasantly, "you see nearly all of
them do. Won't you come in?"
[Illustration: "The two men stood spellbound before the easel."]
"It's cooler outside," ventured Mark.
"There isn't much difference," said Thornly, rising courteously.
"I'm Cap'n Billy Morgan!" This statement appeared to interest Thornly
immensely.
"I'm glad to meet you," he answered.
"Are ye a painter-man?" asked Billy.
"I've been dubbed that occasionally." Thornly laughed. "What can I do
for you?"
"Did you ever have a--modil?" Mark broke in breathlessly, feeling he
must help Billy out, no matter what his own feelings were.
"I've even been guilty of that!"
"Did ye ever have my Janet?"
Poor Billy's trouble, knowing no restraint of city ways or roundabout
methods, rushed forth sharply.
Thornly changed color perceptibly.
"Come in," he urged, "the glare is really too painful."
The two awkwardly stepped inside. Then Mark's eyes fell upon the canvas.
"Cap'n!" he groaned, "look at this!" The two men stood spellbound before
the easel, and Thornly watched them curiously.
"It's her!" muttered Billy, "it's her! Poor little thing! she's jest
drifted without a hand upon the tiller." The visitors forgot Thornly.
"I didn't think I had more'n the right t' watch, Cap'n." Mark's voice
was full of tears as he said this.
"Ye had the right t' shout out a call t' me, lad. You'd have done the
like fur any little skiff you'd seen in danger." Then he turned upon
Thornly. "What right hev ye got t' steal my gal's looks? An' what tricks
hev ye used t' git 'em, an' her happiness 'long with 'em?"
Thornly winced. "Her happiness?" he asked helplessly, not knowing what
else to say.
"Yes. Her happiness! Don't ye s'pose that I, what has watched her since
she came int' port, watched her an' loved her, an' sot hopes on her,
don't ye think I know the difference 'twixt her happiness an' the sham
thing?"
"Good Lord!" breathed Thornly, "are you speaking truth?"
Billy drew himself up with a dignity Thornly shrank before.
"Thar ain't anythin' but the truth good enough t' use, when we're
talkin' of my little gal!" he said quietly. He felt no need of Mark, nor
knowledge of city ways.
Mark was still riveted before the picture. Slow tears were rolling down
his twitching face. The calamity that had overtaken Janet was like
death, and this lovely smiling face upon the canvas was but the dear
memory of her!
"I never meant to harm her," said Thornly presently. "I cannot hope that
you will understand; it has only recently come to me, the understanding.
I have always thought the artist in me had a right to seize and make my
own all that my eye saw that was beautiful. Lately the man in me has
uprisen and shown me that I have been a fool--a fool and a thief!"
"That's what you are!" blubbered Mark, "that last's what you are! You've
taken Janet's good name, you've taken her happiness--and you've taken
her frum us!" Thornly's color rose, but a look at the speaker's
distorted face hushed the angry words he was about to utter. He turned
to Billy as to an equal.
"Captain Morgan," he said quietly, "I have done nothing to harm your
daughter's good name, in the eyes of any man or woman! That I swear
before God. In that I yearned to make her wonderful beauty add to my
reputation, I plead my blind selfishness; but above all I wanted to give
to the world a pleasure that you can never realize, I think, and I
believe your daughter is great enough to give all, that I ruthlessly
took without asking, to help me give the world that picture!" His own
eyes turned to the pure, exquisite face.
"Like as not she would!" Billy replied, "like as not she would. Was
there ever a woman as wasn't willin' t' fling herself away, if a man was
reckless enough t' p'int the path out t' her? An' do ye think I'm goin'
t' let ye take my Janet's dear face int' that hell-place of a city; an'
have folks starin' at her, folks what ain't fit t' raise their eyes t'
her? Ain't ye done her enough wrong without takin' her sacrifice, if
she's willin' t' make it?"
"Good God, man! I'm willing to do all I can. That picture is worth
hundreds of dollars to me and untold pleasure to many besides, but I am
willing to do with it just what you think best."
"Then cut it open, Mark!" Billy's tone rose shrilly. "Slash it top an'
bottom an' don't leave a trace o' Janet."
Mark drew from his pocket a huge clasp knife. He trembled as he opened
it and stood back to strike the first blow.
"Stop!" Thornly sprang between him and the canvas. "Stop! I could easier
see some savage devastate the beauty of these Hills. Wait! I swear to
leave it as it is. I swear that no eyes but ours shall rest upon it;
but you shall not destroy it!"
Command and power rang in Thornly's voice. Mark wavered. Billy hung his
head.
"Arter all," he groaned, "we ain't none o' us got the final right.
Janet's my gal, but her beauty is hers, an' God Almighty's. Keep the
picter till such time as my Janet can judge an' say. The time will come
when she'll get her bearin's, with full instructions, an' then she'll
judge among us all!"
The two rough men turned toward the door. "When she tells ye," Billy
paused to say, "she'll be wiser than what she is t'-day, poor little
critter!"
Thornly watched the men, in stern silence, until they passed from sight;
then he went back to the easel.
"Pimpernel," he whispered brokenly, "poor little wild flower, out of
place among us all!" He drew a heavy cloth over the radiant face, and
with reverent hand placed the canvas against the wall in the darkest
corner of the room.
* * * * *
Late that afternoon Billy's boat put off for the Station in the teeth of
a rising gale and amid ominous warnings of thunder.
Susan Jane grew more irritable and nervous as the storm rose. She feared
storm and lightning.
"Janet, ain't that Billy's sail crossin' the bay?" she said. Janet came
to the window.
"Yes, it is," she faltered; "and he's going on!"
"Well, what do you suppose? Ain't he got t' get back by sundown?
'T would be a pretty pass if he'd come off at sundown."
"But he's been off all day, likely as not!" Janet's lip quivered.
"Well, s'pose he has. Are you goin' t' be one of them tormentin' women
who is always naggin' a man about what he's doin' an' what he ain't
a-doin'? Where's David?"
"He's gone up into the Light, Susan Jane."
The woman turned anxiously toward the window. "It's an awful storm
risin', Janet. Wind off sea, but changin' every minute. Draw the shade.
I'm fearin' the ocean will rise high enough fur us t' see the breakers
over the dunes! I ain't seen the ocean fur thirty odd years, an' I ain't
goin' t' now!" Her voice rose hysterically, like a frightened child's.
"I jest won't see the ocean!" Janet pulled the green shade down, and hid
from her own aching eyes the vanishing sight of Billy's struggling
boat, but her loving heart went with it as, spurning the wind and
darkness, it made for the dunes and duty!
"All day!" the girl thought; "all day, and not to let me know! Oh, Cap'n
Daddy, what mischief have you been up to?" The quivering smile rose over
the hurt, but anxiety lay deep in the troubled heart.
A crash of thunder rent the air! A blinding flash of lightning turned
the black bay to a molten sea. Janet could see it through the glass of
the outer door in the entry.
"Janet!"
"Yes, Susan Jane."
"Come away from the draught! I think you might know, how if you got
struck by lightnin' I couldn't do a blessed thing but look at you."
Janet came into the darkened room.
"Light the lamp!" Susan commanded. "I ain't goin' t' save oil, when I'm
in this state. Oh! Janet,"--a splintering crash shook the house,--"did
you ever hear the like?"
"It's pretty bad, Susan Jane!" But the girl was thinking of the little
boat struggling on the bay, the strong hand upon the tiller, and the
faithful heart, fearless in the midst of danger.
"Janet, since you ain't got no nerves, can you read t' me an' sort o'
drown the storm? I'm powerful shaken. I can't run if the house is
struck; I can't do nothin' but jest suffer." The woman was crying
miserably.
"I'll read to you, Susan Jane; and the storm's passing. I can count
now."
"How many? How many, Janet?" A blinding flash showed around the green
curtain's edge and dimmed the light of the kerosene lamp.
"One--two." The awful crash stilled the word.
"'T ain't fur enough off, Janet, to trust any! Oh! God help me! If I
could only put my hands over my ears!" But the poor, helpless hands lay
white and shrivelled in the woman's lap.
"Here, Susan Jane. Shut your eyes tight and lean your head upon my
shoulder. There! Now when I see the flash I will cover your ears. That
will help."
"Janet,"--a mildness stole into the peevish, whining voice,--"Janet,
times is, when I see that Billy warn't all wrong in his bringin' of you
up. He's sort o' left the softness like a baby in you." The hidden eyes
did not see the glare, but the thin form quivered as the girl's firm
hands were pressed over the sensitive ears.
"It's kinder muffled-like," panted the woman. "In between, Janet, can
you say any of it?"
"Your chapter, Susan?"
"Yes. David knows the most of it, an' nights, bad nights, he says it
when he ain't so plumb sleepy he can't."
"I'll say what I can, Susan Jane." The gray head nestled close to the
strong young shoulder. The nagging woman rested, breathing deep. The
fierce storm was rolling away; darkness was giving place, outside, to
the sunset glow which, during all the terror and gloom, had lain
waiting.
"'And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth: for the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away and there was no more sea.'" Janet's voice
repeated the words slowly, tenderly. Their beauty held her fancy.
"Davy explains that"--Susan's muffled words came dully--"this way. He
says the old happy time, when William Henry an' me was young an' lovin',
you know about that?"
"Yes, Susan Jane."
"Well, that was the first heaven an' earth fur us, an' it's passed
away!" The woman was sobbing as a frightened child sobs when fear and
danger have passed and relief has opened the flood gates.
"I don't know how William Henry is goin' t' bide a new heaven without
any sea, Janet; he sot a lot by the sea! Always a-goin' out when it was
the wildest an' trickiest! He use t' say, he'd like t' go to glory by
water, an' he did, he did! I wasn't none older than you be, Janet, when
he went down, an' the cruel waves kept him, kept him forever!"
"There, there, Susan Jane, you know they did not keep the part you
loved. That part is safe where there is no more sea!" Solemnly the girl
spoke as she smoothed the throbbing head.
"Yes! Like as not you're right, Janet. An' he'll find other comfort in
that heaven. He was the patientest, cheerfulest body; an' never a quick
word fur me. Janet, don't you ever tell, but I'm afraid t' see the
ocean! I'm afraid, because I'm always a-thinkin' his dead white face
might come up t' me--on a wave!"
"Poor Susan Jane! It will never come to harm you. I would not fear. I
love the sea. If it had been my William Henry, I should have watched for
his face shining in the beautiful curly waves, and had I seen it, I
would have stretched out my arms to him, and we would have gone away--to
glory together!"
"Not if the face was a--dead face, Janet!" A horror rang in the words.
"Somehow," the girl replied, "I could never think it dead, if it came
that way. 'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.'"
"That's it, Janet," Susan Jane's voice trailed sleepily; "the former
things are the things what has the tears, an' the pains, an' the hurts;
an' they must pass away before there can be any kind of a heaven that's
worth while. I wonder--" drearily, "I wonder how it will seem when I
ain't got any pains, nor any tears, an' when there ain't any more black
nights to think about them in? I'll feel terrible lost just at first. It
will be about as hard fur me t' get use t' doin' without them, as it
will fur William Henry t' do without the sea. I guess we'll all have
considerable t' do t' learn t' get along without the former things,
whatever they was. Maybe some of the joy will be in learnin' all over.
Janet, I'm powerful sodden with weariness. Weariness is one of the
former things!" A whimsical humor stirred the words. "Sometimes the
former things get t' be dreadful foolish day after day."
"Let me carry you to the bedroom, Susan." Janet had assumed this duty in
order to spare David, the nights he must go up aloft. The thin, light
body was no burden to the sturdy girl.
"There, Susan, and see the storm is past!" The evening glow was shining
in the bedroom window. "And I will undress you, just as easy as easy can
be, and put you so, upon the cool bed! The shower has cleared the air
beautifully. Now are you comfortable, Susan Jane?"
"I'm more comfortable than what I've been fur a time past. Leave the
shade up t' the top, Janet; I like to see the gleam of Davy's Light when
it is dark. I like t' think how it helps folks find their way to the
harbors where they would be. Janet, that was a terrible queer thing you
said about the face in the wave."
The girl was folding the daily garments of the tired woman and placing
them where David's bungling hands could find them for another day's
service.
"What was that, Susan Jane?" She stood in the fair full light of the
parting day.
"About it not being a dead face! That's been the horror of it, all these
years; it has always been a dead an' gone face! That's why I hated the
sea. But if"--and a radiance spread over the thin, wasted features--"if
it should be that William Henry came back t' me, alive an' smilin' as he
always did, why, like as not, I'd put my arms out--" then she paused and
the voice broke; "no, I could not put my arms out--but I could smile
like I've most forgotten how t' do, an' I could go with William Henry,
anywhere, same as any other lovin' woman! I never thought about his face
bein' alive in the wave! But, do you know, it's a real pleasant idee,
that of seein' the sea again an' William Henry a-smilin' an' wavin' his
arms like he use t' when he was bathin'! I declare it's a real grateful
thought. Janet!"
"Yes, Susan."
"I wish you'd go up int' the Light after you've cleared the settin'
room, an' tell Davy good night! I forgot t' say it when he started up.
We'd had some difference 'bout money; least, Davy had, I never have any
different idee about it. It's him as changes. Go get the box, Janet, an'
put it under the bed. If it wasn't fur me, I guess Davy would know!"
It was after sunset, when Janet, hearing Susan Jane's even breathing,
felt herself free. She stretched her arms above her head and so eased
the tension. The manner of bearing life's burdens by the people of the
dunes was but an acquired talent with her. The first and natural impulse
of the girl's nature was to cry out against care and trouble, to make a
noise, and act! It was second nature only that had taught her to assume
silently and bear secretly whatever of unpleasantness life presented.
"Oh! Cap'n Daddy," she had once cried to Billy, when something had
stirred her childish depths, "why don't we yell, and kick and scare it
off?"
"'T ain't sensible with them as lives near the sea, Janet," Billy had
calmly returned. "The sea teaches a powerful pinted lesson 'long o' them
lines. Troubles is like the sea. When they is the worst, they do all the
shoutin' an' roarin' themselves, an' ye jest might as well pull in yer
sail an' lie low. When they is past, an' the calm sets in, 't is plain
shallowness t' use yerself up then. Folks in cities don't learn this
lesson; they ain't got no such teacher, an' that's why they wear out
sooner, an' have that onsettled air. They think noise an' bustle o'
their makin' can do away with troubles, but it can't, Janet. So like as
not, the sooner ye learn, the better."
Janet thought of this hard lesson now as she stretched her strong young
body, and quelled the rebellious cry upon her lips.
"I'll go up and bid Davy good night," she whispered half aloud. Then
lower: "Good night, my Cap'n Daddy! You've reached the dunes safely, but
you'll have to own up some day!" She waved in the direction of the
Station.
"How dark the water looks!" she suddenly cried; "stars in plenty--where
is Davy's Light?"
White and fear-filled, she sprang toward the stairs and ran lightly
upward. Slower she went, after the third landing; anxiety, added to
weariness, stayed the eager feet. If the Light were not burning, what
then? Just below the lamp and gallery was a tiny room with a table,
chair, small stove, and little glass lamp. Here, between the times that
David inspected his Light, he sat to read or think. As Janet reached the
place the darkness was so dense she could see nothing, but with
outstretched hands she was feeling her way to the door leading to the
steps into the Light, when she touched David's gray head, as it lay upon
his arms folded upon the table! He was breathing deeply and audibly, and
the girl's touch did not arouse him. Whatever the matter was with
David, Janet's first thought was of his sacred and neglected duty. She
ran on, and into the lamp. She struck the match and set the blaze to the
wick; then, when it was well lighted, she darted outside and withdrew
the cloth. The belated beams shot into the night as if they had gained
strength and power from the forced delay.
"God keep the government from knowing!" breathed the girl; "it was only
a little while, and it ought not to count after all the faithful years."
Weak from fear and hurry, Janet retraced her steps to David. He was
still sleeping as peacefully as a child. Under his folded arms was an
open book. Janet recognized it as one that Mr. Devant had given to David
recently, a little book of poems of the sea, poems with a ring and
rhythm in them that bore the golden thoughts to Davy's song-touched
heart. The man had fallen asleep like a happy boy, forgetting, for the
first time in his life, his duty.
Janet lighted the little lamp upon the stand, and drew up a stool. The
minutes ticked themselves away upon Davy's big, white-faced clock which
hung against the wall. Eight, eight thirty, eight forty-five! Then David
sat up and stared with wide-opened eyes right at Janet. A moment of
bewilderment shook his awakening senses; then he gave his sigh and
laugh.
"By gum!" he said, "jest fur an instint I thought I'd forgot my Light!"
"It's all right, Davy," Janet nodded cheerfully.
"Course!" Davy returned the nod; "course, ye don't s'pose I'd light my
lamp fust, do ye?"
"Never, Davy!"
"It's bad enough t' be napping. Like as not the government would turn me
out, an' with reason, if it caught on t' that. I don't know but I ought
t' confess. But Lord! I was that worn, 'long with Susan Jane's bein'
more ailin' than usual, an' the thickness of the air with the shower,
that arter I saw everythin' was shipshape, I guess I flopped some. I'll
forgive myself this once; but if it happens again, Davy Thomas, yer'll
write t' the government sure as yer born an' tell 'em what a
blubber-head ye air."
Janet laughed, and stretched her arms out until she clasped David's
rough hands. "I'll go up an' take a look!" said the man; "stop till I
come down, Janet, I've got somethin' t' tell ye."
"I came up to tell you," the girl called after him, "that Susan Jane
sent good night to you."
"She did that?" Davy paused upon the step and his face shone in the dull
light. Janet nodded. Then Davy went to inspect his lamp.
"But to us He gives the keepin'
Of the lights along the shore!"
Janet smiled as the cheerful words floated back to her. Presently David
returned.
"Everythin' is as it should be," he chuckled; "clear night, but changin'
breeze, an' the Light doin' its proper duty! Janet, while I slept, I had
the durndest dream, I can't get rid of it. I read once how the surest
way to get rid of an idee was t' dump it on another."
"Dump away, Davy."
"It made me feel kinder like I did long ago; an' then Susan Jane sendin'
that good night up, sort o' fitted in. Janet, I've been dreamin' about
William Henry Jones."
Janet nodded. William Henry seemed recently to have assumed shape and
form to her. He had been but a name in the past.
"I saw him a comin' up the stairs jest as plain as day, like he use t'
come when he came off, an' ran up t' me, if I happened t' be haulin' ile
up t' the balcony, or cleanin' the lamp, or what not. His face was
shinin' same as it use t'. By gum! I never see such a face as William
Henry had! It always seemed to be lit from inside. 'I've come fur
Susy,' he said. He was the only one as ever called her that, an' I ain't
heerd it since he went down int' the sea that mornin' he was
bluefishin'. 'I've come fur Susy, an' I want t' thank ye fur carin' fur
her like what ye have." Them was his words, as true as gospil. An' they
was turrible comfortin'. Fur, Janet, I ain't told it t' another soul,
not even t' Billy, but I always loved Susan Jane--fur myself. When
William Henry won her, I wasn't ever goin' t' let on, but when he got
drownded an' Susan had t' hustle t' keep life in her body, I jest out
an' begged t' take care of her--fur William Henry! I told that lie,
Janet, because I darsn't tell her I wanted her fur myself. I didn't
never care whether she loved me or not, after I knowed she loved William
Henry, anyway; but when he went, I wanted t' take care of her an' keep
her from the hardest knocks, an' I wanted it fur jest myself! After a
while I talked her int' it. She warn't never strong, an' work an'
grievin' made her an easy mark fur sufferin' an' so she let me take care
of her! But always it has laid heavy on my mind that I hadn't acted jest
fair t' William Henry. An' sometimes, when I've been settin' out on the
balcony, freshenin' up, I've planned it all out how I'd see him a
comin' over the dunes some day,--comin' out o' the sea what swallowed
him, with an awful look of anger on his smilin' face, 'cause I'd got his
Susy on false pretences, as ye might say. It's got kind o' wearin' on me
o' late, but Lord! when I saw William Henry t'-night, he was more
shinin' an' smilin' than ever. An' when he thanked me like what he did,
I nigh busted with pleasure. An' then as you told me 'bout Susan Jane's
good night, I jest sent up a prayer out there on the balcony, a prayer
of gratefulness fur all my blessin's.
"Dreams is queer stuff, Janet. 'T ain't all as should be counted; but
then, ye don't count all the folks an' happenin's that pass ye in yer
wakin' hours. But when a dream, or a person, or an idee comes along, as
means a comfort or a strengthener, I take it that it is a sort o' duty
t' clutch it, an' make it real. When ye ain't got nothin' better, dreams
is powerful upliftin' at times. Gum!" David drew his shoulders up and
plunged his hands in his pockets, as if about to draw comfort from their
depths.
"Gum! Janet. 'T ain't often I get duty and pleasure mixed, but ye stop
here, an' after I take another look at the lamp, I'm goin' t' run down
an' say good night t' Susan Jane. I know how she's lyin' awake, thinkin'
an' thinkin' of the past. Dreams don't seem t' come much t' Susan
Jane."
David paid his visit to the Light, then descended the stairs, while
Janet took up the book of poems and turned the pages idly. David's dream
and all that had happened seemed to still her. How long she sat by the
dim lamplight she took no thought to find out. The words of poem after
poem passed under her eyes unheedingly. Once she went into the Light,
saw that all was well, and came back to the book. Presently David
emerged from the stairway. Janet was facing him, and the expression of
his eyes brought her to her feet, and to his side.
"Davy, what is it?" she demanded.
"He has come!"
"Who?"
"William Henry! He's taken her!"
"No, no! Davy, it is not so, she is only asleep." David shook his head
and his eyes had a dumb agony in them.
"'T ain't so, Janet! An' she's smilin' like she use t'. I ain't seen
that smile on her face in over thirty year. That's the way she use t'
look when she heard me comin' in the gloamin', an' thought it was him!
No, Janet, she wears--William Henry's smile!"
Janet darted past him, but he stayed her. "I want ye should sit by her
till sun up. There's a brisk storm settin' in agin, an' 't ain't fit fur
ye t' go fur any one; an' I've got t' mind the Light. Stay 'long of her,
Janet. I'm glad she ain't got t' suffer any more, or nothin'!" A sob
choked the deep voice and seemed to follow the fleeing girl as she ran
down the winding stairs.
Davy had placed the living-room lamp upon the table by Susan Jane's bed.
By its glow, Janet looked upon the woman under the gaudy patchwork
quilt. Apparently she had not moved since Janet had placed her there.
Without a struggle or pain she had gone forth.
"Oh! Susy," the old forgotten name slipped from the girl's quivering
lips. "Oh! Susy, I just believe you saw his live, shining face on an
incoming wave! And when the wave went out, it took you both to glory!
But, oh! my poor, dear, lonely Davy!" Then the bright head bowed upon
the coverlid. "Susy, oh, Susy! I am so glad I held you while you were
frightened. If I hadn't I should never have forgiven myself. It was all
I could do for Davy, and William Henry, and you!"