Plain Mary Smith

down the pike, me and Eli, an

g it wouldn't be more than six months before I'd come back with a gunny-sack full of hundred-dollar bills, buy Mr. Jaspe

boy is that you're sur

ly New England summer, when every breath of air had a pretty story to tell. If it hadn't

ngs in the world. We pulled for the schooner right away, but none too quick for me. I never like

saw him I thought he was standing in a hole. Howsomever, he got around mighty lively on his little stumps, and he could light his pipe when the Matilda, of Boston, was throwing handsprin

ejiggered young thingermergummeries that runs away from hum, heh?" I don't wish to be unders

expl

eller? You'll be riggin' a set of stays fur them when we hit the strea

ld bladder-head," says Eli, cousinly.

mblebee. "I am; that's me! I don't own this boat nor

ys Eli, un

as anything. "What makes you so hasty, E

rs in hand, and works th

e grin, showing a set of

rubbing his hands together. "Dry

turble person, you are-you'd

than anybody of his weight I ever see. He come up to E

"You've tried me often"-here he got impressive, t

stuck the finger in

in, grabbing his finger.

grabbed holt of one another and was scuffling and giggling around the deck like a pair of kids. Captain Jess was stout about the shoulders; he had Eli waving in the breeze once, but at last Eli g

She was an able, fine three-master, the pr

alked over the water, and don't you forget it. Moreover, she was the kindest boat in a seaway I ever boarded. Old Matilda girl would heel just so far; after that the worst draft that ever whistled wouldn't put her under

hair and shoe-leather the way I do, but here there was head-room a-plenty. And Uncle Jesse ate the boys well, too. Good old craft and good old boy running her. Soon's you r

, one of 'em being a lady. The next morni

tities of fresh air around, and Matilda picking up her white skirts and skipping for Panama! Neither man nor money will ever give me a feeling like that again. But then,-ah, then! And there's 'most always a then,-w

own and grinned at me. I couldn't even get mad. "Tell

any poor soul ever regretted a good deed, I did that one. That last message to my mother

ng and a cup of coffee,-the first coffee I ever tasted, mother thinking it wasn't good for boys. Within ten minutes after my meal, William De La Tour Saunders belonged to himself once more. Neve

just there, when they should be there! Why, to see that girl walk twenty feet on the schooner's deck was a picture to remember for the rest of your days. Kid that I was, I noticed there wasn't a line in her makeup that said, "Look at me." Afterward I learned to shake my head at graceful ladies, but I feel kindly toward them still, out of memory of that first girl. My mother moved beautifully, likewise Mattie. They

will feel square on the deal." And when she did turn round I simply spread my hands, mouth, and eyes, and looked at her. I forgot being aboard ship, I f

fun, kindness, and a desire to be friends; from that min

myself; and, for the rest of it, I could sit and look at her beauty, the same as you or me could sit and listen to the greatest music. It meant more than just good looks; I wouldn't go too far if I said it was a kind of religion. And the devil take my soul if I forget the horse-sense and kindness that girl used in teach

very well, and was she hurt? She said, not in the least, thank you, except in her feelings, at being so clumsy. I said, if she was clumsy, why, then, why, then-Now I was a little bashful. Nobody could be a clodhopper who lived with my mother, and ordinarily I acted quite like a man when neces

a whale, or som

first, too, and was afraid I mightn't turn o

o compare you to anything on earth!

s a boy. "Royal!" she sai

is the hand of

said I, thinking

onest as you," said

y. She didn't need it. Plain Mary Smith told of what was beneath her loveliness,-and, I'm forced to admit, her side-stepping and buc

d-off fashion a good woman uses to a man she thinks may come to liking her too well, or that she may come to like too well, when the facts

think that's the nearest I can come to it; good or bad, large or small, he was always Saxton, never attempting to put on anything different. And vain! Well, Heaven preserve us! And, on the other hand, not vain, neither. 'Twas like this. Among the things he did well enough to be high-class was playing the violin. He had a style and a go in it all his own, but he hadn't spent the time to learn some of the stunts that go with the trade. All the same, his natural gifts got him a job to play in concerts. The boss of the affair was a German, the kind of a man who had a soul to realize that Saxton mad

care away and wanders into regions of beautiful sounds hitherto unexplored. Now and then the tall and melancholy gent with the bull-fiddle would scratch out a note or two, and the drummer got in a lick here and there, while the flute man toodle-oodled around to head off Saxy; but, on the whole, that orchestra was worse lost than so many West Pointers tryin

he variety, but rolled out the statement as if it was a joy. In the meantime, he was painting pictures and writing a novel. The pictures never got finished, and the novel hasn't come out, but those things didn't make him any less entertaining; and, as usual, what did get done of them was almighty well done, and done in a way only Arthur Saxt

Saxton asked if we didn't notice how much it was like the songs the children sing in play. He said those songs must have been handed down from far-off days-when we whites were savages, hopping around hollering hye-ee yah, hye-ee yah, and calling on the ladies, dres

see fit, pick, with deliberate choice, such melancholy tunes? And he said it was because nature alwa

e idea it was sad? It struck me that if a thing was

elds, also natural, and pleasant and cheerful to the eye; there was more blue sky than gray, and as for the savage

on, and he didn't spare her feelings none. I was glad Civvy, old girl, was no friend of mine. According to him, of all the mistak

ted civilization worse than he did, and it was plumb hypocrisy for her to set up in its defense; whereupon she replied that she hadn't wasted her time and talents, anyhow; that

If every topic had to turn

sonalities," said Mary.

"I said you were defending a

fraud? I admire

low bow and said, in a tone of voice to flatten her out:

hard and contemptu

et it have liberty," she said. "The trouble

off lightly. Why not

, throwing away her intere

e to regret," he answered her, his manhood

all. If I understand your meaning, that is the le

el and a doubtful kindness. It woke old Saxton up. He took a breath and shook. He put a hand

ou shall care for me, just as I am-you understand?

defy that grows of being scart-

Why don't you advertise your intentions?" she dema

softly. "Let's be friends the rest of the trip. I'l

He was worth it. That dark, long face of his, set off with his red neckerchief, made something f

e wound up, "let us be friends. Isn't it foolish for us to quarrel so, Will

you are or not," I s

rk eyes. "That's the boy for my money!" h

waving an arm around. "To feel sorrowful on such

y too soon to please her. If she didn't like him, she liked somebody who

oon healed," she said. "Tha

ul in a fashion of its own. She tried to buck against it, to keep sneering; but something so young and joyful was in hi