The Mermaid

eavy log hollowed out for a trough. House and barns were white; the house was large, but the barns were many times larger. If it had not been that their sloping roofs of various heig

locks, brushing them about their drooping necks and meek faces. Caius pumped the water for them, and watched them meditatively the while. There was a fire low down in the western sky; over the purple of the leafless woods and the bleak acres of bare red earth its li

. This was not an event that happened every day, so that the letter which he now handed Caius might as well as not have been retarded

as, in Caius' mind, connected only with the idea of elderly women. He opened the letter, therefore, with the less curiosity. Inside he found several pages of the same fin

to the north of his native shore. The writer stated that she knew few men upon the mainland-in which she seemed to include the larger island of Prince Edward-that Caius Simpson was the only medical man of whom she had any personal knowledge who was at that time unemployed. She stated, also, that upon the island where she lived there were some hundreds of fisher-folk, and that a very deadly disease, that she supposed to be dipht

the world all the months the ice lies in the gulf, for at that time we have no communication with the world. You are a good man; you go to church, and believe in the Divine Christ, who was also a physician. It is because of this that I dare to ask you.

ld need to bring with him. It was stated that upon the island he would receive lodging and food, and that th

walked with his lantern through the now darkening air to the house. Just for a few seco

ef nor the enthusiasm she at

e blinked for a moment at the ligh

and read it because he was desired to do so. When finishe

tatively, after he had finished his newspaper para

any dealing

e father spoke with some heat-"the best thing t

that it was evident that the contents of the letter were hateful. That was to be expected. The point that aroused the son's curiosity was to know ho

hat we can easily find out at Souris whether

ntinued to re

erly as ever. The map of Palestine, the old Bible, and some newly-acquired commentaries, obtruded themselves painfully as ornaments. There was no nook or corner in which any

ng his son. The mother's voice chiding the maid in th

spoke in a business-like voice. "He will be able to find out from all th

mark was his father's indifference and

What call have you to interfere with the Magdalens?" His anger rose

et he himself took a certain pleasure in an opportunity that made criticism pertinent rather than impertinent. It was not that he prided himself on knowing or doing better, he was not naturall

is to me, you see, and I should not feel quite just

xperience breeds strong instincts. The elder man felt the importance

rite you can't do less than send a case of medicines, and who is to pay for them, I'd like to know? I'm pretty well cleared out. They're a hardened lot of wreckers on those islands-I've heard that told of them many a time. No doubt their own filth and bad living has brought disease upon them, if there's truth in the tale; and as to this strange woman, giving no testimony or certificate of her respectability, it's a queer thing if she's to begin and teach you religion and duty. It's a bold and impudent lette

hand and obeying the unexpected appeal? Yet he felt no answering anger in return for the rebuke; he only found himself comfortably admitting that if his father put it on the s

ecause he laid it next his heart, the next day its c

hild of the age, and dared not deny its highest precepts. Who would go to these people if he did not go? As to his father, he had coaxed him before for his own advantage; he could coax him now for theirs if he would. He was sufficiently educate

but, on the other hand, the thought of movement and of fresh scenes was more attractive than staying where he was. Then, it would be such a virtuous thing to do and to have done; his own conscience and everyone who heard of the action must applaud it. And he did not think so much of the applause of other

o which he had been invited, was not one at which larger ships or schooners could land, so that it was only from the harbour of another island that the seamen got their news. On all hands it was known that there was bad disease upon Cloud Island, that no doctor was there, and that there was one lady, a Madame Le Ma?tre, a person of some property, who was devoting herself to nur

's farm he had decided to risk the adventure

hese parts there was no one to act the

etails of its pains, and how little children and mothers and wives would be the c

of her natural desires, that he was in this more truly the great man than she had fancied him in her wilde

only a partner with his child. Caius was under the impression that his father could have refused him the

changed little; but to Caius he gave his consent, and all the money he needed, and did not, except

im his first real insight into the pain the parting had cost-into the strong, sad disapproval which in the father's mind lay behind the nominal consent. Caius saw it then, or, at least, he saw enough of it to feel a sharp pa