The Lady of the Aroostook

ven; by night the moon ruled a firmament powdered with stars of multitudinous splendor.

would have liked in another man: he was amiable, and he was droll, though apt to turn sulky if Staniford addressed him, which did not often happen. He knew more than Dunham of shuffle-board, as well as of tossing rings of rope over a peg set up a certain space off in the deck,-a game which they eagerly took up in the afternoon, after pushing about the flat wooden disks all the morning. Most of the talk at the table was of the varying fortunes of the players; and the yarn of the story-teller in the forecastle remained half-spun, while the sail

ons of her queer world, has not imagined anything anomalous in her position. She may realize certain inconveniences. But she must see great advantages in it. Poor girl! How she must be rioting on the united devotion of cabin and forecastle, after the scanty gallantries of a hill town peopled by elderly unmarried women! I'm glad of it, for her sake. I wonder which she really prizes most: your ornate attentions, or the uncouth homage of those sailors, who are always running to fetch her rings and blocks when she makes a wild shot. I believe I don't care and shouldn't disapprove of her preference, whichever it was." Staniford frowned before he

e was obliged to report that she had rather a passive taste in literature. She seemed to like what he said was good, but not to like it very much,

ella, I fancy, reads with the sense of the days when people read in private, and not in public, as we do. She believes that your serious books are all true; and she knows that my novels are all lies-that's what some excellent Christians would call the fiction even of George Eliot or of Hawthorne; she wo

promote sympathy with one's fellow creatures. He confessed even that it disposed him to wish for their less acquaintance when once he had got them generalized; they became then collected specimens. Yet, for the time being, his curiosity in them gave him a specious air

this and for other reasons. "If she were literary, she would be like those vulgar little persons of genius in the magazine stories. She would have read all sorts of impossible things up in her village. She would have been discovered by some aesthetic summer boarder, who had happened to identify her with the gifted Daisy Dawn, and she would be going out on the aesthetic's money for the further expansion of her

"She never does herself justice when you are by. She can

aniford. "But call me some time w

heir responsive quickness; but her ideas are her own, no matter how old they are; and what she

is that thrilling freshness which charms me in Lurella." He laughed. "Have you converted her to you

ters," said Dunham, "till you know ho

religious subjects: it's the only safe ground for her strong thinking, and even there she had better feel strongly. Di

tint of ritualism. It was rumored at one time, before his engagement to Miss Hibbard, that he was going to unite with a celibate brotherhood; he went regularly into retreat at certain seasons, to the vast entertainment of his friend; and, with

," he pondered aloud, "that she is a Calvinist of the deepest dye, and would regard me as a lost spirit for being outside of her church. She would look down upon me from one height

. At another time some flying-fish came on board. The sailors caught a dolphin, and they promised a shark, by and by. All these things were turned to account for the young girl's amusement, as if they had happened for her. The dolphin died that she might wonder and pity his beautiful death; the cook fried her so

Jenness, seconded by Mr. Watterson, refused the luxuries which his bounty provided them, and at the constancy with which Staniford declined some of these dishes, and Hicks declined others. Shortly after the latter began more distinctly to be tolerated, he appeared one day on deck with a steamer-chair in his hand, and offered it to Lydia's use, w

e imagined that she disliked him, and he interested himself in imagining the ignorant grounds of her dislike. "A woman," he said, "must always dislike some one in company; it's usually another woman; as there's none on bo

y had kept from coming up; she must have heard him. He took his cigar from his mouth, and caught up a stool, which he placed near

fternoon at last, and we're at the end of our

nce she gave Staniford showed him looking tranquilly and

gets both at sea. Next week will go faster than this, and we shall all be at Trieste before we know it. Of course we shall have a sto

y better than patronage: it mocked while it caressed all their little pretenses and artificialities; he addressed them as if they must be in the joke of themselves, and did not expect to be taken seriously. At the same time he liked them great

he added nothing, and she observed, with a furtive look

veral times, but I've never seen anything alarming. I'v

been in Italy?" asked Ly

een discouraging to one of her total unacquaintance with it. Presently he added of his own motion, lookin

said

without the interposition of Trieste." He scanned her yet more closely, bu

hed to some self-assertion by this

iford; and then he mused again. "But I suppose-" H

She was where I live, last summer, and she told u

erstand it, wit

escriptions of it

f no use,-

a strange

r places are,-and it's picturesq

er in regard to this peculiar place had been hopeles

ther you liked Venice. I like it, but I can imagine myself sympathizing with people who detest

en there twice,"

ack Bay by night, from the Lo

u to give me an idea from other places. We always go to Greenfield to d

ld imagine those sunset clouds yonder turned marble, you would have Venice as she is at sunset. You must first th

r seem half as home-

ad you find the ship-home-like

ent and pleasant. It seems sometim

l a little queer at sea-in the beginning. And you haven't-at all?" He could no

no farther; and Staniford was glad of it. After al

erely said, "understand

n is very agreeable, and Mr. Mason. I didn't suppose

of most of the Down

n our voices. Our voices are

ve that," said Stan

born in South Bradfield. I was ten

u born, Miss B

r had gone out for his h

ooked round and saw it. "You've detected me," he said; "I haven't any right to keep your likeness, now. I must make you a prese

, simply, "you wi

ith the picture, if you'l

e it to me?" she as

nt to write your name in it. What's the

you," sa

t. "No!" he exclaimed

sted the girl. "What lett

n L," stammered Staniford, "but I

sked Lydi

Lily," he ans

ia is bad enough; but Lily Blood!

elf in an attitude of lying excuse towards the simple girl, over whom he had been lording it in satirical fancy ever since he had seen her, and meek

Lydia Blood. Ship Aroostook, August 15, 1874, and h

egarded the pictur

see that you know how bad

ow how to draw,

criti

N

ony of his habit, amused himself in realizing that here suddenly he was almost upon the terms of window-seat flirtation with a girl whom lately he had treated with perfect indifference, and just now with fatherly patronage. The situation had something more even than the usual window-seat advantages; it had q

on't really know. But I've

teach drawing,

I had a school?" a

y, because he disliked the authorit

frown as of instinctive displea

on the Aroostook,-though there are so few ladies-" It had slipp

ce I thought I should go down to the State Normal School, and study dra

ught it came very winningly from her lips. "No, I'm not a painter. I'm

a looked incredu

h. One day I'm the one, and the next day I'm the other." Lydia looked mystified, and Staniford conti

said

it? Give me an op

know," answ

e dreamt that I was

id Lydia, honestly. "

look fond o

n't sa

ht to press you

t you didn't know what very hard work it was. Some of the

t farming is hard work, and I'm going into it because I disli

one should sacrific

tle conception of martyrdom.

id Lydia

ld have had no scruple in saying that she did it because she was poor. He tried to retrieve himself. "Of course, I understand that school-teaching is useful self-sacrifice." He trembled les

said

or not, and he rather feared not. "You do

ghed. "We

had really no reason; he said this to gain time. He was alw

g," said Lydia. "I used to

" interposed Staniford, "they

ood, "I had hard work to get my certi

-four. I'm a prematurely middle-aged man. I wish you would tell me, Miss Blood, a little about South Bradfield. I've been tryi

very nice peop

u like

o live; they are just staying. When I first came there I was a little girl. One day I went into the grave

lace," said Staniford. "I sup

ace," answered

his she made no reply. It is the habit of people bred like her to remain silent

thinking what sort of an old maid she would have become if she had remained in that village. He fancied elements of hardness and sharpness in her which would have asserted themselves as the joyless years went on, like the bony structure of her face as the softness o

said

g inflection, could not chill his enthusiasm.

ed to talk about Italy to me when I was little. He wanted to go. My mother said afterwards-after she had come home

sex, "Miss Blood, you mustn't take cold, sitting here with me. Th

d Lydia; "I believe

ingly upon this curious family circle. It was not the first time that its occupations had struck him oddly. Sometimes when they were all there together, Dunham read aloud. Hicks knew tricks of legerdemain which he played cleverly. The captain told some very g

ham, as they turned in, that ni

m with enthusiasm; "i

ays what she thinks, but she doesn't seem to have thought

said D

his dying of

spoke of him

confidence, then." Staniford paused, with one bo

r father?" a

ments of intimate fact with her. He died in California, where she was bo

touching,

ather wished to visit, and that-Well, anything is predicable of a girl who says so little and looks so much. She's